THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES 

EDITED    BY 

M.  A.  DEWOLFE  HOWE 


JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON 

BY 

JOHN  BURROUGHS 


1  i. ; 


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JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 


JOHN   BURROUGHS 


BOSTON 

SMALL,   MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
MDCCCCII 


Copyright^  1902 
By  Small)  Maynard  £sf  Company 

(Incorporated) 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 


Press  of 
Geo.  H.  Ellis  Co.)  Boston 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANA-BARABA  COLLEGE  LIBRART 


T&e  photogravure  used  as  a  frontispiece 
to  this  volume  is  from  an  original  painting 
by  George  P.  A.  Healy,  London,  1838, 
now  owned  by  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History,  Boston,  to  whom  it  was  presented 
by  the  heirs  of  Josiah  Bradlee.  The  pres- 
ent engraving  is  by  John  Andrew  &  Son, 
Boston. 


TO  C.  B. 


PEEFACE. 

TJie  pioneer  in  American  ornithology 
was  Alexander  Wilson,  a  Scotch  weaver 
and  poet,  who  emigrated  to  this  country  in 
1794,  and  began  the  publication  of  his 
great  work  upon  our  birds  in  1808.  He 
figured  and  described  three  hundred  and 
twenty  species,  fifty-six  of  them  new  to 
science.  His  death  occurred  in  1813,  be- 
fore the  publication  of  his  work  had  been 
completed. 

But  the  chief  of  American  ornithologists 
was  John  James  Audubon.  Audubon  did 
not  begin  where  Wilson  left  off.  He  was 
also  a  pioneer,  beginning  his  studies  and 
drawings  of  the  birds  probably  as  early  as 
Wilson  did  his,  but  he  planned  larger  and 
lived  longer.  He  spent  the  greater  part  of 
his  long  life  in  the  pursuit  of  ornithology, 
and  was  of  a  more  versatile,  flexible,  and 
artistic  nature  than  was  Wilson.  He  was 
collecting  the  material  for  his  work  at  the 
same  time  that  Wilson  was  collecting  his, 


x  PBEFACE 

but  he  did  not  begin  the  publication  of  it  till 
fourteen  years  after  Wilson's  death.  Both 
men  went  directly  to  Nature  and  underwent 
incredible  hardships  in  exploring  the  woods 
and  marshes  in  quest  of  their  material. 
Auduborfs  rambles  were  much  wider,  and 
extended  over  a  much  longer  period  of  time. 
Wilson,  too,  contemplated  a  work  upon  our 
quadrupeds,  but  did  not  live  to  begin  it. 
Audubon  was  blessed  with  good  health, 
length  of  years,  a  devoted  and  self -sacrific- 
ing wife,  and  a  buoyant,  sanguine,  and 
elastic  disposition.  He  had  the  heavenly 
gift  of  enthusiasm  —  a  passionate  love  for 
the  work  he  set  out  to  do.  He  was  a 
natural  hunter,  roamer,  woodsman ;  as  un- 
worldly as  a  child,  and  as  simple  and  trans- 
parent. We  have  had  better  trained  and 
more  scientific  ornithologists  since  his  day, 
but  none  with  his  abandon  and  poetic  fervour 
in  the  study  of  our  birds. 

Both  men  were  famous  pedestrians  and 
often  walked  hundreds  of  miles  at  a  stretch. 
They  were  natural  explorers  and  voyagers. 


PEEFACE  xi 

They  loved  Nature  at  first  hand,  and  not 
merely  as  she  appears  in  books  and  pictures. 
They  both  kept  extensive  journals  of  their 
wanderings  and  observations.  Several  of 
Audubon's  (recording  his  European  experi- 
ences') seem  to  have  been  lost  or  destroyed, 
but  what  remain  make  up  the  greater  part 
of  two  large  volumes  recently  edited  by  his 
grand-daughter,  Maria  E.  Audubon. 

I  wish  here  to  express  my  gratitude  both 
to  Miss  Audubon,  and  to  Messrs.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  for  permitting  me  to  draw 
freely  from  the  "Life  and  Journals"  just 
mentioned.  The  temptation  is  strong  to  let 
Audubon's  graphic  and  glowing  descriptions 
of  American  scenery,  and  of  his  tireless 
wanderings,  speak  for  themselves. 

It  is  from  these  volumes,  and  from  the 
life  by  his  widow,  published  in  1868,  that  I 
have  gathered  the  material  for  this  brief 


Audubon's  life  naturally  divides  itself 
into  three  periods :  his  youth,  which  was  on 
the  whole  a  gay  and  happy  one,  and  which 


xii  PREFACE 

lasted  till  the  time  of  his  marriage  at  the  age 
of  twenty-eight;  his  business  career  which 
followed,  lasting  ten  or  more  years,  and 
consisting  mainly  in  getting  rid  of  the  fortune 
his  father  had  left  him ;  and  his  career  as 
an  ornithologist  which,  though  attended 
with  great  hardships  and  privations,  brought 
him  much  happiness  and,  long  before  the 
end,  substantial  pecuniary  rewards. 

His  ornithological  tastes  and  studies 
really  formed  the  main  current  of  his  life 
from  his  teens  onward.  During  his  busi- 
ness ventures  in  Kentucky  and  elsewhere 
this  current  comes  to  the  surface  more  and 
more,  absorbed  more  and  more  of  his  time 
and  energies ,  and  carried  him  further  and 
further  from  the  conditions  of  a  successful 
business  career. 

J.  B. 

WBST  PAKK,  NBW  YORK, 
January,  1902. 


CHKONOLOGY. 

1780 

May  4.  John  James  La  Forest  Audubon 
was  born  at  Mandeville,  Louisiana. 
(Paucity  of  dates  and  conflicting  state- 
ments make  it  impossible  to  insert  dates 
to  show  when  the  family  moved  to  St. 
Domingo,  and  thence  to  France. ) 

1797  (?) 

Returned  to  America  from  France.  Here 
followed  life  at  Mill  Grove  Farm,  near 
Philadelphia. 

1805  or  6 

Again  in  France  for  about  two  years. 
Studied  under  David,  the  artist.  Then 
returned  to  America. 

1808 

April  8.  Married  Lucy  Bakewell,  and 
journeyed  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  to 
engage  in  business  with  one  Eozier. 

1810 

March.  First  met  Wilson,  the  ornitholo- 
gist. 


xiv  CHRONOLOGY 

1812 
Dissolved  partnership  with  Eozier. 

1808-1819 

Various  business  ventures  in  Louisville, 
Hendersonville,  and  St.  Genevieve,  Ken- 
tucky, again  at  Hendersonville,  thence 
again  to  Louisville. 

1819 

Abandoned  business  career. 
Became  taxidermist  in  Cincinnati. 

1820 

Left  Cincinnati.  Began  to  form  definite 
plans  for  the  publication  of  his  draw- 
ings. Returned  to  New  Orleans. 

1822 

Went  to  Natchez  by  steamer.  Gun- 
powder ruined  two  hundred  of  his 
drawings  on  this  trip.  Obtained  posi- 
tion of  Drawing-master  in  the  college  at 
Washington,  Mississippi.  At  the  close 
of  this  year  took  his  first  lessons  in  oils. 

1824 

Went  to  Philadelphia  to  get  his  draw- 
ings published.  Thwarted.  There  met 
Sully,  and  Prince  Canino. 


CHEONOLOGY  xv 

1826 

Sailed  for  Europe  to  introduce  his  draw- 
ings. 

1827 
Issued  prospectus  of  his  "  Birds. " 

1828 

Went  to  Paris  to  canvass.  Visited 
Cuvier. 

1829 

Eeturned  to  the  United  States,  scoured 
the  woods  for  more  material  for  his 
biographies. 

1830 
Eeturned  to  London  with  his  family. 

1830-1839 

Elephant  folio,  The  Birds  of  North  Amer- 
ica, published. 

1831-39 

American  Ornithological  Biography  pub- 
lished in  Edinburgh. 

1831 
Again  in  America  for  nearly  three  years. 

1832-33 

In  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  the 
Northern  States,  Labrador,  and  Canada. 


xvi  CHBONOLOGY 

1834 

Completion  of  second  volume  of  ' '  Birds, ' ' 
also  second  volume  of  American  Ornitho- 
logical Biography. 

1835 
In  Edinburgh. 

1836 

To  New  York  again  —  more  exploring  ; 
found  books,  papers  and  drawings  had 
been  destroyed  by  fire,  the  previous 
year. 

1837 
Went  to  London. 

1838 

Published  fourth  volume  of  American 
Ornithological  Biography. 

1839 
Published  fifth  volume  of  "  Biography." 

1840 
Left  England  for  the  last  time. 

1842 

Built  house  in  New  York  on  "  Minnie's 
Land,"  now  Audubon  Park. 


CHEONOLOGY  xvii 

1843 
Yellowstone  Eiver  Expedition. 

1840-44 

Published  the  reduced  edition  of  his 
c  l  Bird  Biographies. '  J 

1846 

Published  first  volume  of  "Quadru- 
peds." 

1848 

Completed  Quadrupeds  and  Biography  of 
American  Quadrupeds.  (The  last  vol- 
ume was  not  published  till  1854,  after 
his  death.) 

1851 

January  27.  John  James  Audubon  died 
in  New  York. 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON. 


THERE  is  a  hopeless  confusion  as  to 
certain  important  dates  in  Audubon's 
life.  He  was  often  careless  and  unreli- 
able in  his  statements  of  matters  of  fact, 
which  weakness  during  his  lifetime 
often  led  to  his  being  accused  of  false- 
hood. Thus  he  speaks  of  the  "memo- 
rable battle  of  Valley  Forge  "  and  of  two 
brothers  of  his,  both  officers  in  the 
French  army,  as  having  perished  in  the 
French  Bevolution,  when  he  doubtless 
meant  uncles.  He  had  previously  stated 
that  his  only  two  brothers  died  in  infancy. 
He  confessed  that  he  had  no  head  for 
mathematics,  and  he  seems  always  to 
have  been  at  sea  in  regard  to  his  own 
age.  In  his  letters  and  journals  there 
are  several  references  to  his  age,  but 
they  rarely  agree.  The  date  of  his  birth 
usually  given,  May  4,  1780,  is  probably 
three  or  four  years  too  early,  as  he 


2  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
speaks  of  himself  as  being  nearly  sev- 
enteen when  his  mother  had  him  con- 
firmed in  the  Catholic  Church,  and  this 
was  about  the  time  that  his  father,  then 
an  officer  in  the  French  navy,  was  sent 
to  England  to  effect  a  change  of  prison- 
ers, which  time  is  given  as  1801. 

The  two  race  strains  that  mingle  in 
him  probably  account  for  this  illogical 
habit  of  mind,  as  well  as  for  his  roman- 
tic and  artistic  temper  and  tastes. 

His  father  was  a  sea-faring  man  and 
a  Frenchman  j  his  mother  was  a  Spanish 
Creole  of  Louisiana  —  the  old  chivalrous 
Castilian  blood  modified  by  new  world 
conditions.  The  father,  through  com- 
mercial channels,  accumulated  a  large 
property  in  the  island  of  St.  Domingo. 
In  the  course  of  his  trading  he  made 
frequent  journeys  to  Louisiana,  then  the 
property  of  the  French  government. 
On  one  of  these  trips,  probably,  he  mar- 
ried one  of  the  native  women,  who  is 
said  to  have  possessed  both  wealth  and 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  3 
beauty.  The  couple  seem  to  have  occu- 
pied for  a  time  a  plantation  belonging  to 
a  French  Marquis,  situated  at  Mande- 
ville  on  the  North  shore  of  Lake  Pont- 
chartrain.  Here  three  sons  were  born 
to  them,  of  whom  John  James  La  Forest 
was  the  third.  The  daughter  seems  to 
have  been  younger. 

His  own  mother  perished  in  a  slave 
insurrection  in  St.  Domingo,  where  the 
family  had  gone  to  live  on  the  Audubon 
estate  at  Aux  Cayes,  when  her  child  was 
but  a  few  months  old.  Audubon  says 
that  his  father  with  his  plate  and  money 
and  himself,  attended  by  a  few  faithful 
servants,  escaped  to  New  Orleans.  What 
became  of  his  sister  he  does  not  say, 
though  she  must  have  escaped  with 
them,  since  we  hear  of  her  existence 
years  later.  Not  long  after,  how  long  we 
do  not  know,  the  father  returned  to 
France,  where  he  married  a  second  time, 
giving  the  son,  as  he  himself  says,  the 
only  mother  he  ever  knew.  This  woman 


4  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
proved  a  rare  exception  among  step- 
mothers—  but  she  was  too  indulgent, 
and,  Audubon  says,  completely  spoiled 
him,  bringing  him  up  to  live  like  a  gen- 
tleman, ignoring  his  faults  and  boasting 
of  his  merits,  and  leading  him  to  believe 
that  fine  clothes  and  a  full  pocket  were 
the  most  desirable  things  in  life. 

This  she  was  able  to  do  all  the  more 
effectively  because  the  father  soon  left 
the  son  in  her  charge  and  returned  to 
the  United  States  in  the  employ  of  the 
French  government,  and  before  long 
became  attached  to  the  army  under  La 
Fayette.  This  could  not  have  been  later 
than  1781,  the  year  of  Cornwallis7  sur- 
render, and  Audubon  would  then  have 
been  twenty-one,  but  this  does  not  square 
with  his  own  statements.  After  the  war 
the  father  still  served  some  years  in  the 
French  navy,  but  finally  retired  from 
active  service  and  lived  at  La  Gerbetiere 
in  France,  where  he  died  at  the  age  of 
ninety-five,  in  1818. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  5 
Audubon  says  of  his  mother:  "Let 
no  one  speak  of  her  as  my  step- mother. 
I  was  ever  to  her  as  a  son  of  her  own 
flesh  and  blood  and  she  was  to  me  a  true 
mother.'7  With  her  he  lived  in  the  city 
of  Nantes,  France,  where  he  appears  to 
have  gone  to  school.  It  was,  however, 
only  from  his  private  tutors  that  he 
says  he  got  any  benefit.  His  father  de- 
sired him  to  follow  in  his  footsteps,  and 
he  was  educated  accordingly,  studying 
drawing,  geography,  mathematics,  fenc- 
ing, and  music.  Mathematics  he  found 
hard  dull  work,  as  have  so  many  men  of 
like  temperament,  before  and  since,  but 
music  and  fencing  and  geography  were 
more  to  his  liking.  He  was  an  ardent, 
imaginative  youth,  and  chafed  under  all 
drudgery  and  routine.  His  foster-mother, 
in  the  absence  of  his  father,  suffered  him 
to  do  much  as  he  pleased,  and  he  pleased 
to  "play  hookey'7  most  of  the  time, 
joining  boys  of  his  own  age  and  disposi- 
tion, and  deserting  the  school  for  the 


6  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
fields  and  woods,  hunting  birds'  nests, 
fishing  and  shooting  and  returning  home 
at  night  with  his  basket  filled  with 
various  natural  specimens  and  curiosi- 
ties. The  collecting  fever  is  not  a  bad 
one  to  take  possession  of  boys  at  this 
age. 

In  his  autobiography  Audubon  relates 
an  incident  that  occurred  when  he  was 
a  child,  which  he  thinks  first  kindled 
his  love  for  birds.  It  was  an  encounter 
between  a  pet  parrot  and  a  tame  mon- 
key kept  by  his  mother.  One  morning 
the  parrot,  Mignonne,  asked  as  usual  for 
her  breakfast  of  bread  and  milk,  where- 
upon the  monkey,  being  in  a  bad  humour, 
attacked  the  poor  defenceless  bird,  and 
killed  it.  Audubon  screamed  at  the 
cruel  sight,  and  implored  the  servant  to 
interfere  and  save  the  bird,  but  without 
avail.  The  boy's  piercing  screams 
brought  the  mother,  who  succeeded  in 
tranquillising  the  child.  The  monkey 
was  chained,  and  the  parrot  buried,  but 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDTJBON  7 
the  tragedy  awakened  in  him  a  lasting 
love  for  his  feathered  friends. 

Audubon's  father  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  to  direct  his  attention  to  the  study 
of  birds,  and  to  the  observance  of  Nature 
generally.  Through  him  he  learned  to 
notice  the  beautiful  colourings  and  mark- 
ings of  the  birds,  to  know  their  haunts, 
and  to  observe  their  change  of  plumage 
with  the  changing  seasons ;  what  he 
learned  of  their  mysterious  migrations 
fired  his  imagination. 

He  speaks  of  this  early  intimacy  with 
Nature  as  a  feeling  which  bordered  on 
frenzy.  Watching  the  growth  of  a  bird 
from  the  egg  he  compares  to  the  unfold- 
ing of  a  flower  from  the  bud. 

The  pain  which  he  felt  in  seeing  the 
birds  die  and  decay  was  very  acute,  but, 
fortunately,  about  this  time  some  one 
showed  him  a  book  of  illustrations,  and 
henceforth  1 1  a  new  life  ran  in  my  veins, ' ' 
he  says.  To  copy  Nature  was  thereafter 
his  one  engrossing  aim. 


8        JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

That  lie  realised  how  crude  his  early 
efforts  were  is  shown  by  his  saying : 
"My  pencil  gave  birth  to  a  family  of 
cripples.77  His  steady  progress,  too,  is 
shown  in  his  custom,  on  every  birthday, 
of  burning  these  e Crippled7  drawings, 
then  setting  to  work  to  make  better, 
truer  ones. 

His  father  returning  from  a  sea  voy- 
age, probably  when  the  son  was  about 
twenty  years  old,  was  not  well  pleased 
with  the  progress  that  the  boy  was  mak- 
ing in  his  studies.  One  morning  soon 
after,  Audubon  found  himself  with  his 
trunk  and  his  belongings  in  a  private 
carriage,  beside  his  father,  on  his  way  to 
the  city  of  Eochefort.  The  father  oc- 
cupied himself  with  a  book  and  hardly 
spoke  to  his  son  during  the  several  days 
of  the  journey,  though  there  was  no 
anger  in  his  face.  After  they  *were 
settled  in  their  new  abode,  he  seated  his 
son  beside  him  and  taking  one  of  his 
hands  in  his,  calmly  said  :  "  My  beloved 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  9 
boy,  thou  art  now  safe.  I  have  brought 
thee  here  that  I  may  be  able  to  pay  con- 
stant attention  to  thy  studies ;  thou 
shalt  have  ample  time  for  pleasures, 
but  the  remainder  must  be  employed 
with  industry  and  care." 

But  the  father  soon  left  him  on  some 
foreign  mission  for  his  government  and 
the  boy  chafed  as  usual  under  his  tasks 
and  confinement.  One  day,  too  much 
mathematics  drove  him  into  making  his 
escape  by  leaping  from  the  window,  and 
making  off  through  the  gardens  attached 
to  the  school  where  he  was  confined.  A 
watchful  corporal  soon  overhauled  him, 
however,  and  brought  him  back,  where 
he  was  confined  on  board  some  sort  of 
prison  ship  in  the  harbour.  His  father 
soon  returned,  when  he  was  released,  not 
without  a  severe  reprimand. 

We  next  find  him  again  in  the  city  of 
Nantes  struggling  with  more  odious 
mathematics,  and  spending  all  his  leis- 
ure time  in  the  fields  and  woods,  study- 


10      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

ing  the  birds.  About  this  time  he  began 
a  series  of  drawings  of  the  French  birds, 
which  grew  to  upwards  of  two  hundred, 
all  bad  enough,  he  says,  but  yet  real 
representations  of  birds,  that  gave  him  a 
certain  pleasure.  They  satisfied  his  need 
of  expression. 

At  about  this  time,  too,  though  the 
year  we  do  not  know,  his  father  con- 
cluded to  send  him  to  the  United  States, 
apparently  to  occupy  a  farm  called  Mill 
Grove,  which  the  father  had  purchased 
some  years  before  on  the  Schuylkill 
river  near  Philadelphia.  In  New  York 
he  caught  the  yellow  fever :  he  was 
carefully  nursed  by  two  Quaker  -ladies 
who  kept  a  boarding  house  in  Morris- 
town,  New  Jersey. 

In  due  time  his  father's  agent,  Miers 
Fisher,  also  a  Quaker,  removed  him  to 
his  own  villa  near  Philadelphia,  and 
here  Audubon  seems  to  have  remained 
some  months.  But  the  gay  and  ardent 
youth  did  not  find  the  atmosphere  of  the 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  11 
place  congenial.  The  sober  Quaker  grey 
was  not  to  his  taste.  His  host  was  op- 
posed to  music  of  all  kinds,  and  to  danc- 
ing, hunting,  fishing  and  nearly  all 
other  forms  of  amusement.  More  than 
that,  he  had  a  daughter  between  whom 
and  Audubon  he  apparently  hoped  an 
affection  would  spring  up.  But  Audu- 
bon took  an  unconquerable  dislike  to 
her.  Very  soon,  therefore,  he  demanded 
to  be  put  in  possession  of  the  estate  to 
which  his  father  had  sent  him. 

Of  the  month  and  year  in  which  he 
entered  upon  his  life  at  Mill  Grove,  we 
are  ignorant.  We  know  that  he  fell 
into  the  hands  of  another  Quaker,  Will- 
iam Thomas,  who  was  the  tenant  on  the 
place,  but  who,  with  his  worthy  wife, 
seems  to  have  made  life  pleasant  for 
him.  He  soon  became  attached  to  Mill 
Grove,  and  led  a  life  there  just  suited 
to  his  temperament. 

"Hunting,  fishing,  drawing,  music, 
occupied  my  every  moment ;  cares  I 


12  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
knew  not  and  cared  naught  about  them. 
I  purchased  excellent  and  beautiful 
horses,  visited  all  such  neighbours  as  I 
found  congenial  spirits,  and  was  as 
happy  as  happy  could  be." 

Near  him  there  lived  an  English 
family  by  the  name  of  Bakewell,  but 
he  had  such  a  strong  antipathy  to  the 
English  that  he  postponed  returning  the 
call  of  Mr.  Bakewell,  who  had  left  his 
card  at  Mill  Grove  during  one  of  Audu- 
bon's  excursions  to  the  woods.  In  the 
late  fall  or  early  winter,  however,  he 
chanced  to  meet  Mr.  Bakewell  while  out 
hunting  grouse,  and  was  so  pleased  with 
him  and  his  well-trained  dogs,  and  his 
good  marksmanship,  that  he  apologised 
for  his  discourtesy  in  not  returning  his 
call,  and  promised  to  do  so  forthwith. 
Not  many  mornings  thereafter  he  was 
seated  in  his  neighbour's  house. 

"Well  do  I  recollect  the  morning," 
he  says  in  the  autobiographical  sketch 
which  he  prepared  for  his  sons,  "and 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  13 
may  it  please  God  that  I  never  forget  it, 
when  for  the  first  time  I  entered  Mr. 
BakewelPs  dwelling.  It  happened  that 
he  was  absent  from  home,  and  I  was 
shown  into  a  parlour  where  only  one 
young  lady  was  snugly  seated  at  her 
work  by  the  fire.  She  rose  on  my  en- 
trance, offered  me  a  seat,  assured  me  of 
the  gratification  her  father  would  feel 
on  his  return,  which,  she  added,  would 
be  in  a  few  moments,  as  she  would  des- 
patch a  servant  for  him.  Other  ruddy 
cheeks  and  bright  eyes  made  their  trans- 
ient appearance,  but,  like  spirits  gay, 
soon  vanished  from  my  sight ;  and  there 
I  sat,  my  gaze  riveted,  as  it  were,  on  the 
young  girl  before  me,  who,  half  work- 
ing, half  talking,  essayed  to  make  the 
time  pleasant  to  me.  Oh  !  may  God 
bless  her !  It  was  she,  my  dear  sons, 
who  afterwards  became  my  beloved 
wife,  and  your  mother.  Mr.  Bakewell 
soon  made  his  appearance,  and  received 
me  with  the  manner  and  hospitality  of 


14  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
a  true  English  gentleman.  The  other 
members  of  the  family  were  soon  intro- 
duced to  me,  and  Lucy  was  told  to  have 
luncheon  produced.  She  now  rose  from 
her  seat  a  second  time,  and  her  form,  to 
which  I  had  paid  but  partial  attention, 
showed  both  grace  and  beauty  ;  and  my 
heart  followed  every  one  of  her  steps. 
The  repast  over,  dogs  and  guns  were 
made  ready. 

"Lucy,  I  was  pleased  to  believe, 
looked  upon  me  with  some  favour,  and  I 
turned  more  especially  to  her  on  leav- 
ing. I  felt  that  certain  l  Je  ne  sais  quoi ' 
which  intimated  that,  at  least,  she  was 
not  indifferent  to  me." 

The  winter  that  followed  was  a  gay 
and  happy  one  at  Mill  Grove  ;  shooting 
parties,  skating  parties,  house  parties 
with  the  Bakewell  family,  were  of  fre- 
quent occurrence.  It  was  during  one  of 
these  skating  excursions  upon  the  Perk- 
iomen  in  quest  of  wild  ducks,  that 
Audubon  had  a  lucky  escape  from 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  15 
drowning.  He  was  leading  the  party 
down  the  river  in  the  dusk  of  the  even- 
ing, with  a  white  handkerchief  tied  to 
a  stick,  when  he  came  suddenly  upon  a 
large  air  hole  into  which,  in  spite  of 
himself,  his  impetus  carried  him.  Had 
there  not  chanced  to  be  another  air  hole 
a  few  yards  below,  our  hero's  career 
would  have  ended  then  and  there.  The 
current  quickly  carried  him  beneath  the 
ice  to  this  other  opening  where  he  man- 
aged to  seize  hold  of  the  ice  and  to 
crawl  out. 

His  friendship  with  the  Bakewell  fam- 
ily deepened.  Lucy  taught  Audubon 
English,  he  taught  her  drawing,  and 
their  friendship  very  naturally  ripened 
into  love,  which  seems  to  have  run  its 
course  smoothly. 

Audubon  was  happy.  He  had  ample 
means,  and  his  time  was  filled  with 
congenial  pursuits.  He  writes  in  his 
journal :  "I  had  no  vices,  but  was 
thoughtless,  pensive,  loving,  fond  of 


16      JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON 

shooting,  fishing,  and  riding,  and  had  a 
passion  for  raising  all  sorts  of  fowls, 
which  sources  of  interest  and  amusement 
folly  occupied  my  time.  It  was  one  of 
my  fancies  to  be  ridiculously  fond  of 
dress ;  to  hunt  in  black  satin  breeches, 
wear  pumps  when  shooting,  and  to  dress 
in  the  finest  ruffled  shirts  I  could  obtain 
from  France." 

The  evidences  of  vanity  regarding  his 
looks  and  apparel,  sometimes  found  in 
his  journal,  are  probably  traceable  to 
his  foster-mother's  unwise  treatment  of 
him  in  his  youth.  "We  have  seen  how 
his  father's  intervention  in  the  nick  of 
time  exercised  a  salutary  influence  upon 
him  at  this  point  in  his  career,  directing 
his  attention  to  the  more  solid  attain- 
ments. Whatever  traces  of  this  self- con- 
sciousness and  apparent  vanity  remained 
in  after  life,  seem  to  have  been  more  the 
result  of  a  naive  character  delighting  in 
picturesqueness  in  himself  as  well  as  in 
Nature,  than  they  were  of  real  vanity. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  17 
In  later  years  lie  was  assuredly  nothing 
of  the  dandy ;  he  himself  ridicules  his 
youthful  fondness  for  dress,  while  those 
who  visited  him  during  his  last  years 
speak  of  him  as  particularly  lacking  in 
self-  consciousness. 

Although  he  affected  the  dress  of  the 
dandies  of  his  time,  he  was  temper- 
ate and  abstemious.  "  I  ate  no  butcher 7s 
meat,  lived  chiefly  on  fruits,  vegetables, 
and  fish,  and  never  drank  a  glass  of 
spirits  or  wine  until  my  wedding  day.77 
"All  this  time  I  was  fair  and  rosy, 
strong  and  active  as  one  of  my  age  and 
sex  could  be,  and  as  active  and  agile  as 
a  buck." 

That  he  was  energetic  and  handy  and 
by  no  means  the  mere  dandy  that  his  ex- 
travagance in  dress  might  seem  to  indi- 
cate, is  evidenced  from  the  fact  that 
about  this  time  he  made  a  journey  on 
foot  to  New  York  and  accomplished  the 
ninety  miles  in  three  days  in  mid- 
winter. But  he  was  angry,  and  anger  is 
better  than  wine  to  walk  on. 


18      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

The  cause  of  his  wrath  was  this  ;  a 
lead  mine  had  been  discovered  upon  the 
farm  of  Mill  Grove,  and  Audubon  had 
applied  to  his  father  for  counsel  in  regard 
to  it.  In  response,  the  elder  Audubon 
had  sent  over  a  man  by  the  name  of  Da 
Costa  who  was  to  act  as  his  son's  partner 
and  partial  guardian  —  was  to  teach  him 
mineralogy  and  mining  engineering,  and 
to  look  after  his  finances  generally.  But 
the  man,  Audubon  says,  knew  nothing 
of  the  subjects  he  was  supposed  to  teach, 
and  was,  besides,  "a  covetous  wretch, 
who  did  all  he  could  to  ruin  my  father, 
and,  indeed,  swindled  both  of  us  to  a 
large  amount. "  Da  Costa  pushed  his 
authority  so  far  as  to  object  to  Audu- 
bon's  proposed  union  with  Lucy  Bake- 
well,  as  being  a  marriage  beneath  him, 
and  finally  plotted  to  get  the  young  man 
off  to  India.  These  things  very  naturally 
kindled  Audubon' s  quick  temper,  and 
he  demanded  of  his  tutor  and  guardian 
money  enough  to  take  him  to  France 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  19 
to  consult  with  his  father.  Da  Costa 
gave  him  a  letter  of  credit  on  a  sort  of 
banker-broker  residing  in  New  York. 
To  New  York  he  accordingly  went,  as 
above  stated,  and  found  that  the  banker- 
broker  was  in  the  plot  to  pack  him  off 
to  India.  This  disclosure  kindled  his 
wrath  afresh.  He  says  that  had  he 
had  a  weapon  about  him  the  banker's 
heart  must  have  received  the  result  of 
his  wrath.  His  Spanish  blood  began  to 
declare  itself. 

Then  he  sought  out  a  brother  of  Mr. 
Bakewell  and  the  uncle  of  his  sweet- 
heart, and  of  him  borrowed  the  money 
to  take  him  to  France.  He  took  pas- 
sage on  a  New  Bedford  brig  bound  for 
Nantes.  The  captain  had  recently  been 
married  and  when  the  vessel  reached 
the  vicinity  of  New  Bedford,  he  discov- 
ered some  dangerous  leaks  which  neces- 
sitated a  week's  delay  to  repair  damages. 
Audubon  avers  that  the  captain  had 
caused  holes  to  be  bored  in  the  vessel's 


20      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

sides  below  the  water  line,  to  gain  an 
excuse  to  spend  a  few  more  days  with 
his  bride. 

After  a  voyage  of  nineteen  days  the 
vessel  entered  the  Loire,  and  anchored 
in  the  lower  harbour  of  Nantes,  and 
Audubon  was  soon  welcomed  by  his 
father  and  fond  foster-mother. 

His  first  object  was  to  have  the  man 
Da  Costa  disposed  of,  which  he  soon 
accomplished  j  the  second,  to  get  his 
father's  consent  to  his  marriage  with 
Lucy  Bakewell,  which  was  also  brought 
about  in  due  time,  although  the  parents 
of  both  agreed  that  they  were  "owre 
young  to  marry  yet. ' ' 

Audubon  now  remained  two  years  in 
France,  indulging  his  taste  for  hunting, 
rambling,  and  drawing  birds  and  other 
objects  of  Natural  History. 

This  was  probably  about  the  years 
1805  and  1806.  France  was  under  the 
sway  of  Napoleon,  and  conscriptions 
were  the  order  of  the  day.  The  elder 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      21 

Audubon  became  uneasy  lest  his  son  be 
drafted  into  the  French  army  ;  hence  he 
resolved  to  send  him  back  to  America. 
In  the  meantime,  he  interested  one 
Eozier  in  the  lead  mine  and  had  formed 
a  partnership  between  him  and  his  son, 
to  run  for  nine  years.  In  due  course  the 
two  young  men  sailed  for  New  York, 
leaving  France  at  a  time  when  thousands 
would  have  been  glad  to  have  followed 
their  footsteps. 

On  this  voyage  their  vessel  was  pursued 
and  overhauled  by  a  British  privateer, 
the  Rattlesnake,  and  nearly  all  their  money 
and  eatables  were  carried  off,  besides  two 
of  the  ship's  best  sailors.  Audubon  and 
Eozier  saved  their  gold  by  hiding  it  under 
a  cable  in  the  bow  of  the  ship. 

On  returning  to  Mill  Grove,  Audubon 
resumed  his  former  habits  of  life  there. 
"We  hear  no  more  of  the  lead  mine,  but 
more  of  his  bird  studies  and  drawings, 
the  love  of  which  was  fast  becoming 
his  ruling  passion.  "Before  I  sailed 


22  JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON 
for  France,  I  had  begun  a  series  of 
drawings  of  the  birds  of  America,  and 
had  also  begun  a  study  of  their  habits. 
I  at  first  drew  my  subject  dead,  by  which 
I  mean  to  say  that  after  procuring  a 
specimen,  I  hung  it  up,  either  by  the 
head,  wing,  or  foot,  and  copied  it  as 
closely  as  I  could. "  Even  the  hateful 
Da  Costa  had  praised  his  bird  pictures 
and  had  predicted  great  things  for  him 
in  this  direction.  His  words  had  given 
Audubon  a  great  deal  of  pleasure. 

Mr.  William  Bakewell,  the  brother  of 
his  Lucy,  has  given  us  a  glimpse  of 
Audubon  and  his  surroundings  at  this 
time.  "  Audubon  took  me  to  his  house, 
where  he  and  his  companion,  Eozier, 
resided,  with  Mrs.  Thomas  for  an  at- 
tendant. On  entering  his  room,  I  was 
astonished  and  delighted  that  it  was 
turned  into  a  museum.  The  walls  were 
festooned  with  all  sorts  of  birds'  eggs, 
carefully  blown  out  and  strung  on  a 
thread.  The  chimney  piece  was  covered 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  23 
with  stuffed  squirrels,  raccoons  and  opos- 
sums 5  and  the  shelves  around  were  like- 
wise crowded  with  specimens,  among 
which  were  fishes,  frogs,  snakes,  lizards, 
and  other  reptiles.  Besides  these  stuffed 
varieties,  many  paintings  were  arrayed 
upon  the  walls,  chiefly  of  birds.  He  had 
great  skill  in  stuffing  and  preserving 
animals  of  all  sorts.  He  had  also  a  trick 
of  training  dogs  with  great  perfection, 
of  which  art  his  famous  dog  Zephyr  was 
a  wonderful  example.  He  was  an  ad- 
mirable marksman,  an  expert  swimmer, 
a  clever  rider,  possessed  great  activity, 
prodigious  strength,  and  was  notable  for 
the  elegance  of  his  figure,  and  the  beauty 
of  his  features,  and  he  aided  Nature  by 
a  careful  attendance  to  his  dress.  Besides 
other  accomplishments,  he  was  musical, 
a  good  fencer,  danced  well,  had  some 
acquaintance  with  legerdemain  tricks, 
worked  in  hair,  and  could  plait  willow 
baskets.'7  He  adds  that  Audubon  once 
swam  across  the  Schuylkill  with  him 
011  his  back. 


II. 

AUDUBON  was  now  eager  to  marry, 
but  Mr.  Bakewell  advised  him  first  to 
study  the  mercantile  business.  This 
he  accordingly  set  out  to  do  by  enter- 
ing as  a  clerk  the  commercial  house  of 
Benjamin  Bakewell  in  New  York,  while 
his  friend  Eozier  entered  a  French  house 
in  Philadelphia. 

But  Audubon  was  not  cut  out  for  busi- 
ness ;  his  first  venture  was  in  indigo,  and 
cost  him  several  hundred  pounds.  Eo- 
zier succeeded  no  better ;  his  first  specu- 
lation was  a  cargo  of  hams  shipped  to 
the  West  Indies  which  did  not  return 
one  fifth  of  the  cost.  Audubon' s  want 
of  business  habits  is  shown  by  the  state- 
ment that  at  this  time  he  one  day  posted 
a  letter  containing  eight  thousand  dollars 
without  sealing  it.  His  heart  was  in  the 
fields  and  woods  with  the  birds.  His 
room  was  filled  with  drying  bird  skins, 
the  odour  from  which,  it  is  said,  became 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  25 
so  strong  that  his  neighbours  sent  a  con- 
stable to  him  with  a  message  to  abate 
the  nuisance. 

Despairing  of  becoming  successful  bu- 
siness men  in  either  New  York  or  Phila- 
delphia, he  and  Eozier  soon  returned  to 
Mill  Grove.  During  some  of  their  com- 
mercial enterprises  they  had  visited 
Kentucky  and  thought  so  well  of  the 
outlook  there  that  now  their  thoughts 
turned  thitherward. 

Here  we  get  the  first  date  from  Audu- 
bon  ;  on  April  8,  1808,  he  and  Lucy 
Bakewell  were  married.  The  plantation 
of  Mill  Grove  had  been  previously  sold, 
and  the  money  invested  in  goods  with 
which  to  open  a  store  in  Louisville, 
Kentucky.  The  day  after  the  marriage, 
Audubon  and  his  wife  and  Mr.  Eozier 
started  on  their  journey.  In  crossing 
the  mountains  to  Pittsburg  the  coach  in 
which  they  were  travelling  upset,  and 
Mrs.  Audubon  was  severely  bruised. 
From  Pittsburg  they  floated  down  the 


26  JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON 
Ohio  in  a  flatboat  in  company  with  sev- 
eral other  young  emigrant  families.  The 
voyage  occupied  twelve  days  and  was  no 
doubt  made  good  use  of  by  Audubon  in 
observing  the  wild  nature  along  shore. 

In  Louisville,  he  and  Eozier  opened 
a  large  store  which  promised  well.  But 
Audubon7  s  heart  was  more  and  more 
with  the  birds,  and  his  business  more 
and  more  neglected.  Eozier  attended  to 
the  counter,  and,  Audubon  says,  grew 
rich,  but  he  himself  spent  most  of  the 
time  in  the  woods  or  hunting  with  the 
planters  settled  about  Louisville,  be- 
tween whom  and  himself  a  warm  attach- 
ment soon  sprang  up.  He  was  not  grow- 
ing rich,  but  he  was  happy.  "I  shot,  I 
drew,  I  looked  on  Nature  only,"  he 
says,  "and  my  days  were  happy  beyond 
human  conception,  and  beyond  this  I 
really  cared  not." 

He  says  that  the  only  part  of  the  com- 
mercial business  he  enjoyed  was  the  ever 
engaging  journeys  which  he  made  to 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  27 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  to  purchase 
goods. 

These  journeys  led  him  through  the 
"beautiful,  the  darling  forests  of  Ohio/ 
Kentucky,  and  Pennsylvania,"  and  on 
one  occasion  he  says  he  lost  sight  of  the 
pack  horses  carrying  his  goods  and  his 
dollars,  in  his  preoccupation  with  a  new 
warbler. 

During  his  residence  in  Louisville, 
Alexander  Wilson,  his  great  rival  in 
American  ornithology,  called  upon  him. 
This  is  Audubon's  account  of  the  meet- 
ing :  "  One  fair  morning  I  was  surprised 
by  the  sudden  entrance  into  our  count- 
ing room  at  Louisville  of  Mr.  Alexander 
Wilson,  the  celebrated  author  of  the 
American  Ornithology,  of  whose  exist- 
ence I  had  never  until  that  moment 
been  apprised.  This  happened  in 
March,  1810.  How  well  do  I  remember 
him  as  he  then  walked  up  to  me.  His 
long,  rather  hooked  nose,  the  keenness 
of  his  eyes,  and  his  prominent  cheek 


28  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
bones,  stamped  his  countenance  with 
a  peculiar  character.  His  dress,  too, 
was  of  a  kind  not  usually  seen  in  that 
part  of  the  country  ;  a  short  coat,  trous- 
ers and  a  waistcoat  of  grey  cloth.  His 
stature  was  not  above  the  middle  size. 
He  had  two  volumes  under  his  arm,  and 
as  he  approached  the  table  at  which  I 
was  working,  I  thought  I  discovered 
something  like  astonishment  in  his  coun- 
tenance. He,  however,  immediately 
proceeded  to  disclose  the  object  of  his 
visit,  which  was  to  procure  subscrip- 
tions for  his  work.  He  opened  his 
books,  explained  the  nature  of  his  occu- 
pations, and  requested  my  patronage. 
I  felt  surprised  and  gratified  at  the  sight 
of  his  volumes,  turned  over  a  few  of  the 
plates,  and  had  already  taken  my  pen 
to  write  my  name  in  his  favour,  when  my 
partner  rather  abruptly  said  to  me  in 
French :  '  My  dear  Audubon,  what  in- 
duces you  to  subscribe  to  this  work! 
Your  drawings  are  certainly  far  better  ; 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  29 
and  again,  you  must  know  as  much  of 
the  habits  of  American  birds  as  this  gen- 
tleman. >  Whether  Mr.  Wilson  under- 
stood French  or  not,  or  if  the  suddenness 
with  which  I  paused  disappointed  him, 
I  cannot  tell ;  but  I  clearly  perceived 
he  was  not  pleased.  Vanity,  and  the 
encomiums  of  my  friend,  prevented  me 
from  subscribing.  Mr.  Wilson  asked 
me  if  I  had  many  drawings  of  birds,  I 
rose,  took  down  a  large  portfolio,  laid  it 
on  the  table,  and  showed  him  as  I  would 
show  you,  kind  reader,  or  any  other  per- 
son fond  of  such  subjects,  the  whole  of 
the  contents,  with  the  same  patience, 
with  which  he  had  showed  me  his  own 
engravings.  His  surprise  appeared  great, 
as  he  told  me  he  had  never  had  the  most 
distant  idea  that  any  other  individual 
than  himself  had  been  engaged  in  form- 
ing such  a  collection.  He  asked  me  if 
it  was  my  intention  to  publish,  and  when 
I  answered  in  the  negative,  his  surprise 
seemed  to  increase.  And,  truly,  such 


30      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBOX 

was  not  my  intention  ;  for,  until  long 
after,  when  I  met  the  Prince  of  Musig- 
nano  in  Philadelphia,  I  had  not  the 
least  idea  of  presenting  the  fruits  of  my 
labours  to  the  world.  Mr.  Wilson  now 
examined  my  drawings  with  care,  asked 
if  I  should  have  any  objection  to  lend- 
ing him  a  few  during  his  stay,  to  which 
I  replied  that  I  had  none.  He  then 
bade  me  good  morning,  not,  however, 
until  I  had  made  an  arrangement  to  ex- 
plore the  woods  in  the  vicinity  along 
with  him,  and  had  promised  to  procure 
for  him  some  birds,  of  which  I  had 
drawings  in  my  collection,  but  which  he 
had  never  seen.  It  happened  that  he 
lodged  in  the  same  house  with  us,  but 
his  retired  habits,  I  thought,  exhibited 
a  strong  feeling  of  discontent,  or  a  de- 
cided melancholy.  The  Scotch  airs 
which  he  played  sweetly  on  his  flute 
made  me  melancholy,  too,  and  I  felt  for 
him.  I  presented  him  to  my  wife  and 
friends,  and  seeing  that  he  was  all  enthu- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  31 
siasm,  exerted  myself  as  much  as  was  in 
my  power  to  procure  for  him  the  speci- 
mens which  he  wanted. 

"We  hunted  together  and  obtained 
birds  which  he  had  never  before  seen  j 
but,  reader,  I  did  not  subscribe  to  his 
work,  for,  even  at  that  time,  my  collec- 
tion was  greater  than  his. 

u  Thinking  that  perhaps  he  might  be 
pleased  to  publish  the  results  of  my  re- 
searches, I  offered  them  to  him,  merely 
on  condition  that  what  I  had  drawn,  or 
might  afterward  draw  and  send  to  him, 
should  be  mentioned  in  his  work  as  com- 
ing from  my  pencil.  I  at  the  same  time 
offered  to  open  a  correspondence  with 
him,  which  I  thought  might  prove  bene- 
ficial to  us  both.  He  made  no  reply  to 
either  proposal,  and  before  many  days 
had  elapsed,  left  Louisville  on  his  way 
to  New  Orleans,  little  knowing  how 
much  his  talents  were  appreciated  in  our 
little  town,  at  least  by  myself  and  my 
friends. " 


32      JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON 

Wilson's  account  of  this  meeting  is  in 
curious  contrast  to  that  of  Audubon. 
It  is  meagre  and  unsatisfactory.  Under 
date  of  March  19,  he  writes  in  his  diary 
at  Louisville:  "Bambled  around  the 
town  with  my  gun.  Examined  Mr. 

's  [ Audubon' s]  drawings  in  crayons 

—  very  good.  Saw  two  new  birds  he 
had,  both  Motatillae." 

"March  21.  Went  out  this  afternoon 
shooting  with  Mr.  A.  Saw  a  number  of 
Sandhill  cranes.  Pigeons  numerous.7' 

Finally,  in  winding  up  the  record  of 
his  visit  to  Louisville,  he  says,  with  pal- 
pable inconsistency,  not  to  say  falsehood, 
that  he  did  not  receive  one  act  of  civil- 
ity there,  nor  see  one  new  bird,  and 
found  no  naturalist  to  keep  him  com- 
pany. 

Some  years  afterward,  Audubon  hunted 
him  up  in  Philadelphia,  and  found  him 
drawing  a  white  headed  eagle.  He  was 
civil,  and  showed  Audubon  some  atten- 
tion, but  l  i  spoke  not  of  birds  or  draw- 
ings." 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  33 
Wilson  was  of  a  nature  far  less  open 
and  generous  than  was  Audubon.  It  is 
evident  that  he  looked  upon  the  latter  as 
his  rival,  and  was  jealous  of  his  superior 
talents  ;  for  superior  they  were  in  many 
ways.  His  drawings  have  far  more 
spirit  and  artistic  excellence,  and  his 
text  shows  far  more  enthusiasm  and 
hearty  affiliation  with  Nature.  In  ac- 
curacy of  observation,  Wilson  is  fully 
his  equal,  if  not  his  superior. 

As  Audubon  had  deserted  his  busi- 
ness, his  business  soon  deserted  him  ;  he 
and  his  partner  soon  became  discouraged 
(we  hear  no  more  about  the  riches  Eo- 
zier  had  acquired),  and  resolved  upon 
moving  their  goods  to  Hendersonville, 
Kentucky,  over  one  hundred  miles 
further  down  the  Ohio.  Mrs.  Audu- 
bon and  her  baby  son  were  sent  back 
to  her  father's  at  Fatland  Ford  where 
they  remained  upwards  of  a  year. 

Business  at  Hendersonville  proved 
dull ;  the  country  was  but  thinly  in- 


34  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
habited  and  only  the  coarsest  goods 
were  in  demand.  To  procure  food  the 
merchants  had  to  resort  to  fishing  and 
hunting.  They  employed  a  clerk  who 
proved  a  good  shot ;  he  and  Audubon 
supplied  the  table  while  Rozier  again 
stood  behind  the  counter. 

How  long  the  Hendersonville  enter- 
prise lasted  we  do  not  know.  Another 
change  was  finally  determined  upon,  and 
the  next  glimpse  we  get  of  Audubon,  we 
see  him  with  his  clerk  and  partner  and 
their  remaining  stock  in  trade,  consisting 
of  three  hundred  barrels  of  whiskey, 
sundry  dry  goods  and  powder,  on  board 
a  keel  boat  making  their  way  down  the 
Ohio,  in  a  severe  snow  storm,  toward 
St.  Genevieve,  a  settlement  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi Eiver,  where  they  proposed  to 
try  again.  The  boat  is  steered  by  a  long 
oar,  about  sixty  feet  in  length,  made  of 
the  trunk  of  a  slender  tree,  and  shaped 
at  its  outer  extremity  like  the  fin  of  a 
dolphin  5  four  oars  in  the  bow  propelled 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  35 
her,  and  with  the  current  they  made 
about  five  miles  an  hour. 

Mrs.  Audubon,  who  seems  to  have  re- 
turned from  her  father's,  with  her  baby, 
or  babies,  was  left  behind  at  Henderson- 
ville  with  a  friend,  until  the  result  of  the 
new  venture  should  be  determined. 

In  the  course  of  six  weeks,  after  many 
delays,  and  adventures  with  the  ice  and 
the  cold,  the  party  reached  St.  Gen- 
evi£ve. 

Audubon  has  given  in  his  journal  a 
very  vivid  and  interesting  account  of 
this  journey.  At  St.  Genevieve,  the 
whiskey  was  in  great  demand,  and  what 
had  cost  them  twenty-five  cents  a  gallon, 
was  sold  for  two  dollars.  But  Audubon 
soon  became  discouraged  with  the  place 
and  longed  to  be  back  in  Hendersonville 
with  his  family.  He  did  not  like  the  low 
bred  French- Canadians,  who  made  up 
most  of  the  population  of  the  settlement. 
He  sold  out  his  interest  in  the  business 
to  his  partner  who  liked  the  place  and 


36      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
the  people,    and  here  the  two  parted 
company.     Audubon  purchased  a  fine 
horse  and  started  over  the  prairies  on 
his  return  trip  to  Hendersonville. 

On  this  journey  he  came  near  being 
murdered  by  a  woman  and  her  two  des- 
perate sons  who  lived  in  a  cabin  on  the 
prairies,  where  the  traveller  put  up  for 
the  night.  He  has  given  a  minute  and 
graphic  account  of  this  adventure  in  his 
journal. 

The  cupidity  of  the  woman  had  been 
aroused  by  the  sight  of  Audubon' s  gold 
watch  and  chain.  A  wounded  Indian, 
who  had  also  sought  refuge  in  the  shanty 
had  put  Audubon  upon  his  guard.  It 
was  midnight,  Audubon  lay  on  some  bear 
skins  in  one  corner  of  the  room,  feign- 
ing sleep.  He  had  previously  slipped 
out  of  the  cabin  and  had  loaded  his 
gun,  which  lay  close  at  hand.  Presently 
he  saw  the  woman  sharpen  a  huge  carv- 
ing knife,  and  thrust  it  into  the  hand  of 
her  drunken  son,  with  the  injunction  to 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  37 
kill  yon  stranger  and  secure  the  watch. 
He  was  just  on  the  point  of  springing  up 
to  shoot  his  would-be  murderers,  when 
the  door  burst  open,  and  two  travellers, 
each  with  a  long  knife,  appeared. 
Audubon  jumped  up  and  told  them  his 
situation.  The  drunken  sons  and  the 
woman  were  bound,  and  in  the  morning 
they  were  taken  out  into  the  woods  and 
were  treated  as  the  Eegulators  treated 
delinquents  in  those  days.  They  were 
shot.  Whether  Audubon  did  any  of  the 
shooting  or  not,  he  does  not  say.  But  he 
aided  and  abetted,  and  his  Spanish 
blood  must  have  tingled  in  his  veins. 
Then  the  cabin  was  set  on  fire,  and  the 
travellers  proceeded  on  their  way. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  this  story 
sounds  a  good  deal  like  an  episode  in  a 
dime  novel,  and  may  well  be  taken  with 
a  grain  of  allowance.  Did  remote  prairie 
cabins  in  those  days  have  grindstones 
and  carving  knives?  And  why  should 
the  would-be  murderers  use  a  knife  when 
they  had  guns  ? 


38      JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON 

Audubon  reached  Hendersonville  in 
early  March,  and  witnessed  the  severe 
earthquake  which  visited  that  part  of 
Kentucky  the  following  November,  1812. 
Of  this  experience  we  also  have  a  vivid 
account  in  his  journals. 

Audubon  continued  to  live  at  Hender- 
sonville, his  pecuniary  means  much  re- 
duced. He  says  that  he  made  a  pedes- 
trian tour  back  to  St.  Genevieve  to  col- 
lect money  due  him  from  Eozier,  walking 
the  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  miles, 
much  of  the  time  nearly  ankle- deep  in 
mud  and  water,  in  a  little  over  three 
days.  Concerning  the  accuracy  of  this 
statement  one  also  has  his  doubts.  Later 
he  bought  a  "wild  horse, "  and  on  its 
back  travelled  over  Tennessee  and  a  por- 
tion of  Georgia,  and  so  around  to  Phila- 
delphia, later  returning  to  Henderson- 
ville. 

He  continued  his  drawings  of  birds 
and  animals,  but,  in  the  meantime,  em- 
barked in  another  commercial  venture, 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON     39 

and  for  a  time  prospered.  Some  years 
previously  lie  had  formed  a  co-partner- 
ship with  his  wife's  brother,  and  a  com- 
mercial house  in  charge  of  Bakewell  had 
been  opened  in  New  Orleans.  This 
turned  out  disastrously  and  was  a  con- 
stant drain  upon  his  resources. 

This  partner  now  appears  upon  the 
scene  at  Hendersonville  and  persuades 
Audubon  to  erect,  at  a  heavy  outlay,  a 
steam  grist  and  saw  mill,  and  to  take 
into  the  firm  an  Englishman  by  the  name 
of  Pease. 

This  enterprise  brought  fresh  disaster. 
"How  I  laboured  at  this  infernal  mill, 
from  dawn  till  dark,  nay,  at  times  all 
night.7 

They  also  purchased  a  steamboat 
which  was  so  much  additional  weight  to 
drag  them  down.  This  was  about  the 
year  1817.  From  this  date  till  1819, 
Audubon' s  pecuniary  difficulties  in- 
creased daily.  He  had  no  business 
talent  whatever ;  he  was  a  poet  and  an 


40      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
artist ;  lie    cared    not    for    money,    he 
wanted  to  be  alone  with  Nature.     The 
forests  called  to  him,  the  birds  haunted 
his  dreams. 

His  father  dying  in  1818,  left  him  a 
valuable  estate  in  France,  and  seventeen 
thousand  dollars,  deposited  with  a  mer- 
chant in  Eichmond,  Virginia;  but 
Audubon  was  so  dilatory  in  proving 
his  identity  and  his  legal  right  to  this 
cash,  that  the  merchant  finally  died  in- 
solvent, and  the  legatee  never  received 
a  cent  of  it.  The  French  estate  he 
transferred  in  after  years  to  his  sister 
Eosa. 


m. 

FINALLY,  Audnbon  gave  up  the 
struggle  of  trying  to  be  a  business 
man.  He  says  :  "I  parted  with  every 
particle  of  property  I  had  to  my  credit- 
ors, keeping  only  the  clothes  I  wore  on 
that  day,  my  original  drawings,  and  my 
gun,  and  without  a  dollar  in  my  pocket, 
walked  to  Louisville  alone." 

This  he  speaks  of  as  the  saddest  of  all 
his  journeys — "the  only  time  in  my 
life  when  the  wild  turkeys  that  so  often 
crossed  my  path,  and  the  thousands  of 
lesser  birds  that  enlivened  the  woods  and 
the  prairies,  all  looked  like  enemies, 
and  I  turned  my  eyes  from  them,  as  if  I 
could  have  wished  that  they  had  never 
existed." 

But  the  thought  of  his  beloved  Lucy 
and  her  children  soon  spurred  him  to 
action.  He  was  a  good  draughtsman, 
he  had  been  a  pupil  of  David,  he 
would  turn  his  talents  to  account. 


42     JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON 

{t  As  we  were  straightened  to  the  very 
utmost,  I  undertook  to  draw  portraits  at 
the  low  price  of  five  dollars  per  head,  in 
black  chalk.  I  drew  a  few  gratis,  and 
succeeded  so  well  that  ere  many  days 
had  elapsed  I  had  an  abundance  of 
work." 

His  fame  spread,  his  orders  increased. 
A  settler  came  for  him  in  the  middle  of 
the  night  from  a  considerable  distance 
to  have  the  portrait  of  his  mother  taken 
while  she  was  on  the  eve  of  death,  and  a 
clergyman  had  his  child's  body  exhumed 
that  the  artist  might  restore  to  him  the 
lost  features. 

Money  flowed  in  and  he  was  soon 
again  established  with  his  family  in  a 
house  in  Louisville.  His  drawings  of 
birds  still  continued  and,  he  says,  be- 
came at  times  almost  a  mania  with  him  ; 
he  would  frequently  give  up  a  head, 
the  profits  of  which  would  have  supplied 
the  wants  of  his  family  a  week  or  more, 
"to  represent  a  little  citizen  of  the 
feathered  tribe." 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  43 
In  1819  lie  was  offered  the  position  of 
taxidermist  in  the  museum  at  Cincinnati, 
and  soon  moved  there  with  his  family. 
His  pay  not  being  forthcoming  from  the 
museum,  he  started  a  drawing  school 
there,  and  again  returned  to  his  por- 
traits. Without  these  resources,  he 
says,  he  would  have  been  upon  the 
starving  list.  But  food  was  plentiful 
and  cheap.  He  writes  in  his  journal : 
"Our  living  here  is  extremely  moder- 
ate ;  the  markets  are  well  supplied  and 
cheap,  beef  only  two  and  one  half  cents 
a  pound,  and  I  am  able  to  supply  a  good 
deal  myself.  Partridges  are  frequently 
in  the  streets,  and  I  can  shoot  wild  tur- 
keys within  a  mile  or  so.  Squirrels  and 
Woodcock  are  very  abundant  in  the 
season,  and  fish  always  easily  caught. " 
In  October,  1820,  we  again  find  him 
adrift,  apparently  with  thought  of  hav- 
ing his  bird  drawings  published,  after  he 
shall  have  further  added  to  them  by 
going  through  many  of  the  southern 
and  western  states. 


44      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBOlSr 

Leaving  his  family  behind  him,  he 
started  for  New  Orleans  on  a  flatboat. 
He  tarried  long  at  Natchez,  and  did  not 
reach  the  Crescent  City  till  midwinter. 
Again  he  found  himself  destitute  of 
means,  and  compelled  to  resort  to  por- 
trait painting.  He  went  on  with  his 
bird  collecting  and  bird  painting ;  in 
the  meantime  penetrating  the  swamps 
and  bayous  around  the  city. 

At  this  time  he  seems  to  have  heard  of 
the  publication  of  Wilson's  "  Ornitho- 
logy," and  tried  in  vain  to  get  sight  of 
a  copy  of  it. 

In  the  spring  he  made  an  attempt  to 
get  an  appointment  as  draughtsman  and 
naturalist  to  a  government  expedition 
that  was  to  leave  the  next  year  to  survey 
the  new  territory  ceded  to  the  United 
States  by  Spain.  He  wrote  to  President 
Monroe  upon  the  subject,  but  the  ap- 
pointment never  came  to  him.  In  March 
he  called  upon  Vanderlyn,  the  historical 
painter,  and  took  with  him  a  portfolio 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  45 
of  his  drawings  in  hopes  of  getting  a 
recommendation.  Yanderlyn  at  first 
treated  him  as  a  mendicant  and  ordered 
him  to  leave  his  portfolio  in  the  entry. 
After  some  delay,  in  company  with  a 
government  official,  he  consented  to  see 
the  pictures. 

' f  The  perspiration  ran  down  my  face, J  J 
says  Audubon,  "  as  I  showed  him  my 
drawings  and  laid  them  on  the  floor. " 
He  was  thinking  of  the  expedition  to 
Mexico  just  referred  to,  and  wanted  to 
make  a  good  impression  upon  Yanderlyn 
and  the  officer.  This  he  succeeded  in 
doing,  and  obtained  from  the  artist  a 
very  complimentary  note,  as  he  did  also 
from  Governor  Eobertson  of  Louisiana. 

In  June,  Audubon  left  New  Orleans 
for  Kentucky,  to  rejoin  his  wife  and 
boys,  but  somewhere  on  the  journey  en- 
gaged himself  to  a  Mrs.  Perrie  who  lived 
at  Bayou  Sara,  Louisiana,  to  teach  her 
daughter  drawing  during  the  summer,  at 
sixty  dollars  per  month,  leaving  him  half 


46  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
of  each  day  to  follow  his  own  pursuits. 
He  continued  in  this  position  till  October 
when  he  took  steamer  for  New  Orleans. 
"My  long,  flowing  hair,  and  loose  yel- 
low nankeen  dress,  and  the  unfortunate 
cut  of  my  features,  attracted  much  atten- 
tion, and  made  me  desire  to  be  dressed 
like  other  people  as  soon  as  possible." 

He  now  rented  a  house  in  New  Orleans 
on  Dauphine  street,  and  determined  to 
send  for  his  family.  Since  he  had  left 
Cincinnati  the  previous  autumn,  he  had 
finished  sixty-two  drawings  of  birds  and 
plants,  three  quadrupeds,  two  snakes, 
fifty  portraits  of  all  sorts,  and  had  lived 
by  his  talents,  not  having  had  a  dollar 
when  he  started.  "  I  sent  a  draft  to  my 
wife,  and  began  life  in  New  Orleans 
with  forty-two  dollars,  health,  and  much 
eagerness  to  pursue  my  plan  of  collecting 
all  the  birds  of  America.77 

His  family,  after  strong  persuasion, 
joined  him  in  December,  1821,  and  his 
former  life  of  drawing  portraits,  giving 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  47 
lessons,  painting  birds,  and  wandering 
about  the  country,  began  again.  His 
earnings  proving  inadequate  to  support 
the  family,  his  wife  took  a  position  as 
governess  in  the  family  of  a  Mr.  Brand. 

In  the  spring,  acting  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  his  wife,  he  concluded  to  leave 
New  Orleans  again,  and  to  try  his  fort- 
unes elsewhere.  He  paid  all  his  bills 
and  took  steamer  for  Natchez,  paying 
his  passage  by  drawing  a  crayon  por- 
trait of  the  captain  and  his  wife. 

On  the  trip  up  the  Mississippi,  two 
hundred  of  his  bird  portraits  were  sorely 
damaged  by  the  breaking  of  a  bottle  of 
gunpowder  in  the  chest  in  which  they 
were  being  conveyed. 

Three  times  in  his  career  he  met  with 
disasters  to  his  drawings.  On  the  oc- 
casion of  his  leaving  Hendersonville  to 
go  to  Philadelphia,  he  had  put  two 
hundred  of  his  original  drawings  in  a 
wooden  box  and  had  left  them  in  charge 
of  a  friend.  On  his  return,  several 


48  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
months  later,  he  pathetically  recounts 
what  befell  them  :  "  A  pair  of  Norway 
rats  had  taken  possession  of  the  whole, 
and  reared  a  young  family  among 
gnawed  bits  of  paper,  which  but  a 
month  previous,  represented  nearly  one 
thousand  inhabitants  of  the  air  ! " 

This  discovery  resulted  in  insomnia, 
and  a  fearful  heat  in  the  head ;  for 
several  days  he  seemed  like  one 
stunned,  but  his  youth  and  health 
stood  him  in  hand,  he  rallied,  and,  un- 
daunted, again  sallied  forth  to  the 
woods  with  dog  and  gun.  In  three 
years'  time  his  portfolio  was  again 
filled. 

The  third  catastrophe  to  some  of  his 
drawings  was  caused  by  a  fire  in  a  New 
York  building  in  which  his  treasures 
were  kept  during  his  sojourn  in 
Europe. 

Audubon  had  an  eye  for  the  pictur- 
esque in  his  fellow-men  as  well  as  for  the 
picturesque  in  Nature.  On  the  Levee 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      49 

in  New  Orleans,  he  first  met  a  painter 
whom  he  thus  describes  :  ' '  His  head  was 
covered  by  a  straw  hat,  the  brim  of 
which  might  cope  with  those  worn  by 
the  fair  sex  in  1830  ;  his  neck  was  ex- 
posed to  the  weather  ;  the  broad  frill  of 
a  shirt,  then  fashionable,  flopped  about 
his  breast,  whilst  an  extraordinary  col- 
lar, carefully  arranged,  fell  over  the  top 
of  his  coat.  The  latter  was  of  a  light 
green  colour,  harmonising  well  with  a 
pair  of  flowing  yellow  nankeen  trousers, 
and  a  pink  waistcoat,  from  the  bosom  of 
which,  amidst  a  large  bunch  of  the 
splendid  flowers  of  the  magnolia,  pro- 
truded part  of  a  young  alligator,  which 
seemed  more  anxious  to  glide  through 
the  muddy  waters  of  a  swamp  than  to 
spend  its  life  swinging  to  and  fro 
amongst  folds  of  the  finest  lawn.  The 
gentleman  held  in  one  hand  a  cage  full 
of  richly-plumed  nonpareils,  whilst  in 
the  other  he  sported  a  silk  umbrella,  on 
which  I  could  plainly  read  '  Stolen  from 


50  JOKNT  JAMES  AUDUBOST 
I,'  these  words  being  painted  in  large 
white  characters.  He  walked  as  if  con- 
scious of  his  own  importance ;  that  is, 
with  a  good  deal  of  pomposity,  singing, 
'My  love  is  but  a  lassie  yet7  ;  and  that 
with  such  thorough  imitation  of  the 
Scotch  emphasis  that  had  not  his  physi- 
ognomy suggested  another  parentage,  I 
should  have  believed  him  to  be  a  genu- 
ine Scot.  A  narrower  acquaintance 
proved  him  to  be  a  Yankee ;  and  anx- 
ious to  make  his  acquaintance,  I  desired 
to  see  his  birds.  He  retorted,  'What 
the  devil  did  I  know  about  birds  f '  I 
explained  to  him  that  I  was  a  naturalist, 
whereupon  he  requested  me  to  examine 
his  birds.  I  did  so  with  much  interest, 
and  was  preparing  to  leave,  when  he 
bade  me  come  to  his  lodgings  and  see 
the  remainder  of  his  collection.  This 
I  willingly  did,  and  was  struck  with 
amazement  at  the  appearance  of  his  stu- 
dio. Several  cages  were  hung  about  the 
walls,  containing  specimens  of  birds,  all 


JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON      51 

of  which  I  examined  at  my  leisure.  On 
a  large  easel  before  me  stood  an  unfin- 
ished portrait,  other  pictures  hung 
about,  and  in  the  room  were  two  young 
pupils  j  and  at  a  glance  I  discovered 
that  the  eccentric  stranger  was,  like  my- 
self, a  naturalist  and  an  artist.  The 
artist,  as  modest  as  he  was  odd,  showed 
me  how  he  laid  on  the  paint  on  his 
pictures,  asked  after  my  own  pursuits, 
and  showed  a  friendly  spirit  which  en- 
chanted me.  With  a  ramrod  for  a  rest, 
he  prosecuted  his  work  vigorously,  and 
afterwards  asked  me  to  examine  a  per- 
cussion lock  on  his  gun,  a  novelty  to  me 
at  the  time.  He  snapped  some  caps, 
and  on  my  remarking  that  he  would 
frighten  his  birds,  he  exclaimed,  '  Devil 
take  the  birds,  there  are  more  of  them 
in  the  market. ?  He  then  loaded  his 
gun,  and  wishing  to  show  me  that  he 
was  a  marksman,  fired  at  one  of  the  pins 
on  his  easel.  This  he  smashed  to  pieces, 
and  afterward  put  a  rifle  bullet  exactly 


52      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

through  the  hole  into  which  the  pin 
fitted." 

Audnbon  reached  Natchez  on  March 
24,  1822,  and  remained  there  and  in  the 
vicinity  till  the  spring  of  1823,  teaching 
drawing  and  French  to  private  pupils 
and  in  the  college  at  Washington,  nine 
miles  distant,  hunting,  and  painting  the 
birds,  and  completing  his  collection. 
Among  other  things  he  painted  the 
"  Death  of  Montgomery  "  from  a  print. 
His  friends  persuaded  him  to  raffle  the 
picture  off.  This  he  did,  and  taking  one 
number  himself,  won  the  picture,  while 
his  finances  were  improved  by  three 
hundred  dollars  received  for  the  tickets. 
Early  in  the  autumn  his  wife  again  joined 
him,  and  presently  we  find  her  acting  as 
governess  in  the  home  of  a  clergyman 
named  Davis. 

In  December,  there  arrived  in  Natchez 
a  wandering  portrait  painter  named 
Stein,  who  gave  Audubon  his  first  les- 
sons in  the  use  of  oil  colours,  and  was  in- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  53 
structed  by  Audubon  in  turn  in  chalk 
drawing. 

There  appear  to  have  been  no  sacri- 
fices that  Mrs.  Audubon  was  not  willing 
and  ready  to  make  to  forward  the  plans 
of  her  husband.  { i  My  best  friends, J  J  he 
says  at  this  time,  "solemnly  regarded 
me  as  a  mad  man,  and  my  wife  and  fam- 
ily alone  gave  me  encouragement.  My 
wife  determined  that  my  genius  should 
prevail,  and  that  my  final  success  as  an 
ornithologist  should  be  triumphant." 

She  wanted  him  to  go  to  Europe,  and, 
to  assist  toward  that  end,  she  entered 
into  an  engagement  with  a  Mrs.  Percy 
of  Bayou  Sara,  to  instruct  her  children, 
together  with  her  own,  and  a  limited 
number  of  outside  pupils. 

Audubon,  in  the  meantime,  with  his 
son  Victor,  and  his  new  artist  friend, 
Stein,  started  off  in  a  wagon,  seeking 
whom  they  might  paint,  on  a  journey 
through  the  southern  states.  They  wan- 
dered as  far  as  New  Orleans,  but  Audu- 


54      JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON 

bon  appears  to  have  returned  to  his  wife 
again  in  May,  and  to  have  engaged  in 
teaching  her  pupils  music  and  drawing. 
But  something  went  wrong,  there  was  a 
misunderstanding  with  the  Percys,  and 
Audubon  went  back  to  Natchez,  revolv- 
ing various  schemes  in  his  head,  even 
thinking  of  again  entering  upon  mer- 
cantile pursuits  in  Louisville. 

He  had  no  genius  for  accumulating 
money  nor  for  keeping  it  after  he  had 
gotten  it.  One  day  when  his  affairs 
were  at  a  very  low  ebb,  he  met  a  squatter 
with  a  tame  black  wolf  which  took  Au 
dubon's  fancy.  He  says  that  he  offered 
the  owner  a  hundred  dollar  bill  for  it  on 
the  spot,  but  was  refused.  He  probably 
means  to  say  that  he  would  have  offered 
it  had  he  had  it.  Hundred  dollar  bills, 
I  fancy,  were  rarer  than  tame  black 
wolves  in  that  pioneer  country  in  those 
days. 

About  this  time  he  and  his  son  Victor 
were  taken  with  yellow  fever,  and  Mrs. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDTJBON  55 
Audubon  was  compelled  to  dismiss  her 
school  and  go  to  nurse  them.  They  both 
recovered,  and,  in  October  (1823),  set 
out  for  Louisville,  making  part  of  the 
journey  on  foot.  The  following  winter 
was  passed  at  Shipping  Port,  near  Louis- 
ville, where  Audubon  painted  birds, 
landscapes,  portraits  and  even  signs.  In 
March  he  left  Shipping  Port  for  Phila- 
delphia, leaving  his  son  Victor  in  the 
counting  house  of  a  Mr.  Berthoud.  He 
reached  Philadelphia  on  April  5,  and  re- 
mained there  till  the  following  August, 
studying  painting,  exhibiting  his  birds, 
making  many  new  acquaintances,  among 
them  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte,  giving 
lessons  in  drawing  at  thirty  dollars  per 
month,  all  the  time  casting  wistful  eyes 
toward  Europe,  whither  he  hoped  soon 
to  be  able  to  go  with  his  drawings.  In 
July  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Mill  Grove 
where  he  had  passed  so  many  happy 
years.  The  sight  of  the  old  familiar 
scenes  filled  him  with  the  deepest  emo- 
tions. 


56      JOHN   JAMES  AUDUBON 

In  August  lie  left  Philadelphia  for 
New  York,  hoping  to  improve  his  fi- 
nances, and,  may  be,  publish  his  draw- 
ings in  that  city.  At  this  time  he  hac 
two  hundred  sheets,  and  about  one  thou- 
sand birds.  While  there  he  again  mei 
Yanderlyn  and  examined  his  pictures, 
but  says  that  he  was  not  impressed  with 
the  idea  that  Yanderlyn  was  a  great 
painter. 

The  birds  that  he  saw  in  the  museum 
in  New  York  appeared  to  him  to  be  set 
up  in  unnatural  and  constrained  atti- 
tudes. With  Dr.  De  Kay  he  visited  the 
Lyceum,  and  his  drawings  were  exam- 
ined by  members  of  the  Institute. 
Among  them  he  felt  awkward  and  un- 
comfortable. "  I  feel  that  I  am  strange 
to  all  but  the  birds  of  America,77  he  said. 
As  most  of  the  persons  to  whom  he  had 
letters  of  introduction  were  absent,  and 
as  his  spirits  soon  grew  low,  he  left  on 
the  fifteenth  for  Albany.  Here  he  found 
his  money  low  also.  Abandoning  the 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  57 
idea  of  visiting  Boston,  he  took  pas- 
sage on  a  canal  boat  for  Eochester. 
His  fellow-passengers  on  the  boat  were 
doubtful  whether  he  was  a  government 
officer,  commissioner,  or  spy.  At  that 
time  Eochester  had  only  five  thousand 
inhabitants.  After  a  couple  of  days  he 
went  on  to  Buffalo  and,  he  says,  wrote 
under  his  name  at  the  hotel  this  sen- 
tence :  "  Who,  like  Wilson,  will  ramble, 
but  never,  like  that  great  man,  die 
under  the  lash  of  a  bookseller." 

He  visited  Niagara,  and  gives  a  good 
account  of  the  impressions  which  the 
cataract  made  upon  him.  He  did  not 
cross  the  bridge  to  Goat  Island  on  ac- 
count of  the  low  state  of  his  funds.  In 
Buffalo  he  obtained  a  good  dinner  of 
bread  and  milk  for  twelve  cents,  and 
went  to  bed  cheering  himself  with 
thoughts  of  other  great  men  who  had 
encountered  greater  hardships  and  had 
finally  achieved  fame. 

He  soon  left  Buffalo,  taking  a  deck 


58  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
passage  on  a  schooner  bound  for  Erie, 
furnishing  his  own  bed  and  provisions 
and  paying  a  fare  of  one  dollar  and  a 
half.  From  Erie  he  and  a  fellow-traveller 
hired  a  man  and  cart  to  take  them  to 
Meadville,  paying  their  entertainers  over 
night  with  music  and  portrait  draw- 
ing. Beaching  Meadville,  they  had  only 
one  dollar  and  a  half  between  them,  but 
soon  replenished  their  pockets  by  sketch- 
ing some  of  the  leading  citizens. 

Audubon's  belief  in  himself  helped 
him  wonderfully.  He  knew  that  he  had 
talents,  he  insisted  on  using  them.  Most 
of  his  difficulties  came  from  trying  to  do 
the  things  he  was  not  fitted  to  do.  He 
did  not  hesitate  to  use  his  talents  in  a 
humble  way,  when  nothing  else  offered 
—  portraits,  landscapes,  birds  and  ani- 
mals he  painted,  but  he  would  paint 
the  cabin  walls  of  the  ship  to  pay  his 
passage,  if  he  was  short  of  funds,  or 
execute  crayon  portraits  of  a  shoemaker 
and  his  wife,  to  pay  for  shoes  to  enable 


JOHK  JAMES  AUDUBOET  59 
him  to  continue  his  journeys.  He  could 
sleep  on  a  steamer's  deck,  with  a  few 
shavings  for  a  bed,  and,  wrapped  in  a 
blanket,  look  up  at  the  starlit  sky,  and 
give  thanks  to  a  Providence  that  he 
believed  was  ever  guarding  and  guiding 
him. 

Early  in  September  he  left  for  Pitts- 
burg  where  he  spent  one  month  scouring 
the  country  for  birds  and  continuing  his 
drawings.  In  October,  he  was  on  his 
way  down  the  Ohio  in  a  skiff,  in  com- 
pany with  "a  doctor,  an  artist  and 
an  Irishman."  The  weather  was  rainy, 
and  at  Wheeling  his  companions  left  the 
boat  in  disgust.  He  sold  his  skiff  and 
continued  his  voyage  to  Cincinnati  in  a 
keel  boat.  Here  he  obtained  a  loan  of 
fifteen  dollars  and  took  deck  passage  on  a 
boat  to  Louisville,  going  thence  to  Ship- 
ping Port  to  see  his  son  Victor.  In  a 
few  days  he  was  off  for  Bayou  Sara  to 
see  his  wife,  and  with  a  plan  to  open  a 
school  there. 


60      JOHN  JAMES  AUDTJBON 

"I  arrived  at  Bayou  Sara  with  rent 
and  wasted  clothes,  and  uncut  hair,  and 
altogether  looking  like  the  "Wandering 
Jew." 

In  his  haste  to  reach  his  wife  and 
child  at  Mr.  Percy's,  a  mile  or  more 
distant  through  the  woods,  he  got  lost 
in  the  night,  and  wandered  till  daylight 
before  he  found  the  house. 

He  found  his  wife  had  prospered  in 
his  absence,  and  was  earning  nearly 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  with 
which  she  was  quite  ready  to  help  him 
in  the  publication  of  his  drawings.  He 
forthwith  resolved  to  see  what  he  could 
do  to  increase  the  amount  by  his  own 
efforts.  Receiving  an  offer  to  teach  danc- 
ing he  soon  had  a  class  of  sixty  organ- 
ised. But  the  material  proved  so  awk- 
ward and  refractory  that  the  master  in 
his  first  lesson  broke  his  bow  and  nearly 
ruined  his  violin  in  his  excitement  and 
impatience.  Then  he  danced  to  his  own 
music  till  the  whole  room  came  down  in 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  61 
thunders  of  applause.  The  dancing  les- 
sons brought  him  two  thousand  dollars  ; 
this  sum,  together  with  his  wife's  savings, 
enabled  him  to  foresee  a  successful  issue 
to  his  great  ornithological  work. 

On  May,  1826,  he  embarked  at  New 
Orleans  on  board  the  ship  Delos  for 
Liverpool.  His  journal  kept  during 
this  voyage  abounds  in  interesting  inci- 
dents and  descriptions.  He  landed  at 
Liverpool,  July  20,  and  delivered  some 
of  his  letters  of  introduction.  He  soon 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Bath- 
bone,  Mr.  Eoscoe,  Mr.  Baring,  and  Lord 
Stanley.  Lord  Stanley  said  in  looking 
over  his  drawings:  "This  work  is 
unique,  and  deserves  the  patronage  of 
the  Crown.7'  In  a  letter  fa)  his  wife  at 
this  time,  Audubon  said  :  "I  am  cher- 
ished by  the  most  notable  people  in  and 
around  Liverpool,  and  have  obtained 
letters  of  introduction  to  Baron  Huni- 
boldt,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  Hannah 


62  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
More,  Miss  Edgeworth,  and  your  dis- 
tinguished cousin,  Robert  Bake  well." 
Mark  his  courtesy  to  his  wife  in  this 
gracious  mention  of  her  relative  —  a 
courtesy  which  never  forsook  him  —  a 
courtesy  which  goes  far  toward  retaining 
any  woman's  affection. 

His  paintings  were  put  on  exhibition 
in  the  rooms  of  the  Eoyal  Institution,  an 
admittance  of  one  shilling  being  charged. 
From  this  source  he  soon  realised  a 
hundred  pounds. 

He  then  goes  to  Edinburgh,  carrying 
letters  of  introduction  to  many  well 
known  literary  and  scientific  men,  among 
them  Francis  Jeffrey  and  "  Christopher 
North." 

Professor  Jameson,  the  Scotch  natural- 
ist, received  him  coldly,  and  told  him, 
among  other  things,  that  there  was  no 
chance  of  his  seeing  Sir  Walter  Scott  — 
he  was  too  busy.  "Not  see  Sir  Walter 
Scott?"  thoughtl ;  "ISHALL,  iflhaveto 
crawl  on  all  fours  for  a  mile."  On  his 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  63 
way  up  in  the  stage  coach  he  had  passed 
near  Sir  Walter's  seat,  and  had  stood  up 
and  craned  his  neck  in  vain  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  home  of  a  man  to  whom, 
he  says,  he  was  indebted  for  so  much 
pleasure.  He  and  Scott  were  in  many 
ways  kindred  spirits,  men  native  to  the 
open  air,  inevitable  sportsmen,  copious 
and  romantic  lovers  and  observers  of  all 
forms  and  conditions  of  life.  Of  course 
he  will  want  to  see  Scott,  and  Scott  will 
want  to  see  him,  if  he  once  scents  his 
real  quality. 

Later,  Professor  Jameson  showed 
Audubon  much  kindness  and  helped  to 
introduce  him  to  the  public. 

In  January,  the  opportunity  to  see 
Scott  came  to  him. 

"  January  22,  Monday.  I  was  paint- 
ing diligently  when  Captain  Hall  came 
in,  and  said :  '  Put  on  your  coat,  and 
come  with  me  to  Sir  Walter  Scott  j  he 
wishes  to  see  you  now.'  In  a  moment  I 
was  ready,  for  I  really  believe  my  coat 


64  JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON 
and  hat  came  to  me  instead  of  my  going 
to  them.  My  heart  trembled  ;  I  longed 
for  the  meeting,  yet  wished  it  over. 
Had  not  his  wondrous  pen  penetrated 
my  soul  with  the  consciousness  that  here 
was  a  genius  from  God's  hand!  I  felt 
overwhelmed  at  the  thought  of  meeting 
Sir  Walter,  the  Great  Unknown.  We 
reached  the  house,  and  a  powdered 
waiter  was  asked  if  Sir  Walter  were  in. 
We  were  shown  forward  at  once,  and 
entering  a  very  small  room  Captain  Hall 
said  :  '  Sir  Walter,  I  have  brought  Mr. 
Audubon.'  Sir  Walter  came  forward, 
pressed  my  hand  warmly,  and  said  he 
was  '  glad  to  have  the  honour  of  meeting 
me.7  His  long,  loose,  silvery  locks 
struck  me  ;  he  looked  like  Franklin  at 
his  best.  He  also  reminded  me  of  Ben- 
jamin West ;  he  had  the  great  benevo- 
lence of  William  Roscoe  about  him  and 
a  kindness  most  prepossessing.  I  could 
not  forbear  looking  at  him,  my  eyes 
feasted  on  his  countenance.  I  watched 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  65 
his  movements  as  I  would  those  of  a 
celestial  being ;  his  long,  heavy,  white 
eyebrows  struck  me  forcibly.  His  little 
room  was  tidy,  though  it  partook  a  good 
deal  of  the  character  of  a  laboratory. 
He  was  wrapped  in  a  quilted  morning- 
gown  of  light  purple  silk  ;  he  had  been 
at  work  writing  on  the  '  Life  of  Napo- 
leon.7 He  writes  close  lines,  rather 
curved  as  they  go  from  left  to  right,  and 
puts  an  immense  deal  on  very  little 
paper.  After  a  few  minutes  had 
elapsed,  he  begged  Captain  Hall  to  ring 
a  bell j  a  servant  came  and  was  asked 
to  bid  Miss  Scott  come  to  see  Mr.  Audu- 
bon.  Miss  Scott  came,  black  haired  and 
black- dressed,  not  handsome  but  said  to 
be  highly  accomplished,  and  she  is  the 
daughter  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  There 
was  much  conversation.  I  talked  but 
little,  but,  believe  me,  I  listened  and 
observed,  careful  if  ignorant.  I  cannot 
write  more  now.  I  have  just  returned 
from  the  Royal  Society.  Knowing  that 


66      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
I  was  a  candidate  for  the  electorate  of 
the  society,   I  felt  very  uncomfortable 
and  would  gladly  have  been  hunting  on 
Tawapatee  Bottom.' 7 

It  may  be  worth  while  now  to  see  what 
Scott  thought  of  Audubon.  Under  the 
same  date,  Sir  Walter  writes  in  his  jour- 
nal as  follows:  "January  22,  1827.  A 
visit  from  Basil  Hall,  with  Mr.  Audu- 
bon, the  ornithologist,  who  has  followed 
the  pursuit  by  many  a  long  wandering 
in  the  American  forests.  He  is  an 
American  by  naturalisation,  a  French- 
man by  birth ;  but  less  of  a  Frenchman 
than  I  have  ever  seen  —  no  dust  or  glim- 
mer, or  shine  about  him,  but  great  sim- 
plicity of  manners  and  behaviour  ;  slight 
in  person  and  plainly  dressed  j  wears 
long  hair,  which  time  has  not  yet  tinged  ; 
his  countenance  acute,  handsome,  and 
interesting,  but  still  simplicity  is  the 
predominant  characteristic.  I  wish  I 
had  gone  to  see  his  drawings  ;  but  I  had 
heard  so  much  about  them  that  I  re- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  67 
solved  not  to  see  them  —  *  a  crazy  way  of 
mine,  your  honour.7  " 

Two  days  later  Audubon  again  saw 
Scott,  and  writes  in  his  journal  as  fol- 
lows:  "  January  24..  My  second  visit 
to  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  much  more 
agreeable  than  my  first.  My  portfolio 
and  its  contents  were  matters  on  which 
I  could  speak  substantially,  and  I  found 
him  so  willing  to  level  himself  with 
me  for  awhile  that  the  time  spent  at 
his  home  was  agreeable  and  valuable. 
His  daughter  improved  in  looks  the 
moment  she  spoke,  having  both  viva- 
city and  good  sense. " 

Scott's  impressions  of  the  birds  as 
recorded  in  his  journal,  was  that  the 
drawings  were  of  the  first  order,  but 
he  thought  that  the  aim  at  extreme 
correctness  and  accuracy  made  them 
rather  stiff. 

In  February  Audubon  met  Scott  again 
at  the  opening  of  the  Exhibition  at  the 
rooms  of  the  Eoyal  Institution. 


68      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

"  Tuesday,  February  13.  This  was 
the  grand,  long  promised,  and  much 
wished- for  day  of  the  opening  of  the 
Exhibition  at  the  rooms  of  the  Eoyal 
Institution.  At  one  o'clock  I  went, 
the  doors  were  just  opened,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  rooms  were  crowded. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  was  present ;  he  came 
towards  me,  shook  my  hand  cordially, 
and  pointing  to  Landseer's  picture 
said :  l  Many  such  scenes,  Mr.  Audu- 
bon,  have  I  witnessed  in  my  younger 
days.'  We  talked  much  of  all  about 
us,  and  I  would  gladly  have  joined 
him  in  a  glass  of  wine,  but  my  foolish 
habits  prevented  me,  and  after  inquir- 
ing of  his  daughter's  health,  I  left  him, 
and  shortly  afterwards  the  rooms  ;  for  I 
had  a  great  appetite,  and  although  there 
were  tables  loaded  with  delicacies,  and  I 
saw  the  ladies  particularly  eating  freely, 
I  must  say  to  my  shame  I  dared  not  lay 
my  fingers  on  a  single  thing.  In  the 
evening  I  went  to  the  theatre  where  I 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      69 

was  much  amused  by  l  The  Comedy  of 
Errors/  and  afterwards,  'The  Green 
Boom.'  I  admire  Miss  Neville's  sing- 
ing very  much  j  and  her  manners  also  j 
there  is  none  of  the  actress  about  her, 
but  much  of  the  lady." 

Audubon  somewhere  says  of  himself 
that  he  was  "  temperate  to  an  intem- 
perate degree ' '  —  the  accounts  in  later 
years  show  that  he  became  less  strict 
in  this  respect.  He  would  not  drink 
with  Sir  Walter  Scott  at  this  time,  but 
he  did  with  the  Texan  Houston  and 
with  President  Andrew  Jackson,  later 
on. 

In  September  we  find  him  exhibiting 
his  pictures  in  Manchester,  but  without 
satisfactory  results.  In  the  lobby  of  the 
exchange  where  his  pictures  were  on  ex- 
hibition, he  overheard  one  man  say  to 
another  :  l '  Pray,  have  you  seen  Mr. 
Audubon' s  collection  of  birds'?  I  am 
told  it  is  well  worth  a  shilling  ;  sup- 
pose we  go  now." 


70      JOHN   JAMES  AUDUBON 

"Pah  !  it  is  all  a  hoax;  save  your 
shilling  for  better  use.  I  have  seen 
them ;  the  fellow  ought  to  be  drummed 
out  of  town." 

In  1827,  in  Edinburgh,  he  seems  to 
have  issued  a  prospectus  for  his  work, 
and  to  have  opened  books  of  subscrip- 
tion, and  now  a  publisher,  Mr.  Lizars, 
offers  to  bring  out  the  first  number  of 
" Birds  of  America/'  and  on  Novem- 
ber 28,  the  first  proof  of  the  first  engrav- 
ing was  shown  him,  and  he  was  pleased 
with  it. 

"With  a  specimen  number  he  proposed 
to  travel  about  the  country  in  quest  of 
subscribers  until  he  had  secured  three 
hundred.  In  his  journal  under  date  of 
December  10,  he  says:  "My  success 
in  Edinburgh  borders  on  the  miraculous. 
My  book  is  to  be  published  in  numbers 
containing  four  [in  another  place  he 
says  five]  birds  in  each,  the  size  of  life, 
in  a  style  surpassing  anything  now  ex- 
isting, at  two  guineas  a  number.  The 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      71 

engravings  are  truly  beautiful  5  some  of 
them  have  been  coloured,  and  are  now  on 
exhibition.7 

Audubon7  s  journal,  kept  during  his 
stay  in  Edinburgh,  is  copious,  graphic, 
and  entertaining.  It  is  a  mirror  of 
everything  he  saw  and  felt. 

Among  others  he  met  George  Combe, 
the  phrenologist,  author  of  the  once 
famous  Constitution  of  Man,  and  he  sub- 
mitted to  having  his  head  " looked  at.7' 
The  examiner  said  :  ' '  There  cannot  exist 
a  moment  of  doubt  that  this  gentleman 
is  a  painter,  colourist,  and  compositor, 
and,  I  would  add,  an  amiable  though 
quick  tempered  man.77 

Audubon  was  invited  to  the  annual 
feast  given  by  the  Antiquarian  Society 
at  the  Waterloo  Hotel,  at  which  Lord 
Elgin  presided.  After  the  health  of 
many  others  had  been  drunk,  Audubon7  s 
was  proposed  by  Skene,  a  Scottish  his- 
torian. "  Whilst  he  was  engaged  in  a 
handsome  panegyric,  the  perspiration 


72  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
poured  from  me.  I  thought  I  should 
faint. "  But  he  survived  the  ordeal  and 
responded  in  a  few  appropriate  words. 
He  was  much  dined  and  wined,  and 
obliged  to  keep  late  hours  —  often  get- 
ting no  more  than  four  hours  sleep,  and 
working  hard  painting  and  writing  all 
the  next  day.  He  often  wrote  in  his 
journals  for  his  wife  to  read  later,  bid- 
ding her  Good-night,  or  rather  Good- 
morning,  at  three  A.M. 

Audubon  had  the  bashfulness  and 
awkwardness  of  the  backwoodsman,  and 
doubtless  the  nai'vet^  and  picturesqueness 
also ;  these  traits  and  his  very  greal 
merits  as  a  painter  of  wild  life,  made 
him  a  favourite  in  Edinburgh  society. 
One  day  he  went  to  read  a  paper  on  the 
Crow  to  Dr.  Brewster,  and  was  so  nervous 
and  agitated  that  he  had  to  pause  for  a 
moment  in  the  midst  of  it.  He  left  the 
paper  with  Dr.  Brewster  and  when  he 
got  it  back  again  was  much  shocked 
"He  had  greatly  improved  the  style 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  73 
(for  I  had  none),  but  he  had  destroyed 
the  matter." 

During  these  days  Audubon  was  very 
busy  writing,  painting,  receiving  callers, 
and  dining  out.  He  grew  very  tired  of 
it  all  at  times,  and  longed  for  the  solitude 
of  his  native  woods.  Some  days  Ms 
room  was  a  perfect  levee.  "It  is  Mr. 
Audubon  here,  and  Mr.  Audubon  there  j 
I  only  hope  they  will  not  make  a  con- 
ceited fool  of  Mr.  Audubon  at  last." 
There  seems  to  have  been  some  danger 
of  this,  for  he  says  :  "I  seem  in  a  meas- 
ure to  have  gone  back  to  my  early  days 
of  society  and  fine  dressing,  silk  stock- 
ings and  pumps,  and  all  the  finery  with 
which  I  made  a  popinjay  of  myself  in 
my  youth.  ...  I  wear  my  hair  as  long 
as  usual,  I  believe  it  does  as  much  for 
me  as  my  paintings." 

He  wrote  to  Thomas  Sully  of  Phila- 
delphia, promising  to  send  him  his 
first  number,  to  be  presented  to  the 
Philadelphia  Society — "an  institution 


74      JOHN   JAMES  AUDUBON 
which  thought  me   unworthy  to  be  a 
member, 77  he  writes. 

About  this  time  he  was  a  guest  for  a 
day  or  two  of  Earl  Morton,  at  his  estate 
Dalmahoy,  near  Edinburgh.  He  had 
expected  to  see  an  imposing  personage 
in  the  great  Chamberlain  to  the  late 
queen  Charlotte.  What  was  his  relief 
and  surprise,  then,  to  see  a  "  small, 
slender  man,  tottering  on  his  feet, 
weaker  than  a  newly  hatched  part- 
ridge,'7 who  welcomed  him  with  tears 
in  his  eyes.  The  countess,  i  i  a  fair,  fresh- 
complexioned  woman,  with  dark,  flash- 
ing eyes/7  wrote  her  name  in  his  sub- 
scription book,  and  offered  to  pay  the 
price  in  advance.  The  next  day  he 
gave  her  a  lesson  in  drawing. 

On  his  return  to  Edinburgh  he  dined 
with  Captain  Hall,  to  meet  Francis 
Jeffrey.  "  Jeffrey  is  a  little  man,77  he 
writes,  "  with  a  serious  face  and  digni- 
fied air.  He  looks  both  shrewd  and 
cunning,  and  talks  with  so  much 


JOHN  JAMES  MJDUBON  75 
volubility  he  is  rather  displeasing.  .  .  . 
Mrs.  Jeffrey  was  nervous  and  very 
much  dressed. " 

Early  in  January  he  painted  his 
" Pheasant  attacked  by  a  Fox."  This 
was  his  method  of  proceeding  :  "I  take 
one  [a  fox]  neatly  killed,  put  him  up 
with  wires,  and  when  satisfied  with  the 
truth  of  the  position,  I  take  my  palette 
and  work  as  rapidly  as  possible  ;  the 
same  with  my  birds.  If  practicable,  I 
finish  the  bird  at  one  sitting, — often,  it 
is  true,  of  fourteen  hours, — so  that  I 
think  they  are  correct,  both  in  detail 
and  in  composition. " 

In  pictures  by  Landseer  and  other 
artists  which  he  saw  in  the  galleries  of 
Edinburgh,  he  saw  the  skilful  painter, 
"the  style  of  men  who  know  how  to 
handle  a  brush,  and  carry  a  good 
effect,"  but  he  missed  that  closeness  and 
fidelity  to  Nature  which  to  him  so  much 
outweighed  mere  technique.  Landseer' s 
" Death  of  a  Stag"  affected  him  like 


76  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
a  farce.  It  was  pretty,  but  not  real  and 
true.  He  did  not  feel  that  way  about 
the  sermon  he  heard  Sydney  Smith 
preach:  "It  was  a  sermon  to  me.  He 
made  me  smile  and  he  made  me  think 
deeply.  He  pleased  me  at  times  by 
painting  my  foibles  with  due  care,  and 
again  I  felt  the  colour  come  to  my  cheeks 
as  he  portrayed  my  sins."  Later, 
he  met  Sydney  Smith  and  his  "fair 
daughter,"  and  heard  the  latter  sing. 
Afterwards  he  had  a  note  from  the 
famous  divine  upon  which  he  remarks  : 
"The  man  should  study  economy;  he 
would  destroy  more  paper  in  a  day  than 
Franklin  would  in  a  week  ;  but  all  great 
men  are  more  or  less  eccentric.  Walter 
Scott  writes  a  diminutive  hand,  very 
difficult  to  read,  Napoleon  a  large  scrawl- 
ing one,  still  more  difficult,  and  Sydney 
Smith  goes  up  hill  all  the  way  with 
large  strides." 

Having  decided  upon  visiting  Lon- 
don, his  friends  persuaded  him  to  have 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  77 
his  hair  cut  before  making  the  trip. 
This  he  did  and  chronicles  the  event 
in  his  journal  as  a  very  sad  one,  in 
which  "  the  will  of  God  was  usurped  by 
the  wishes  of  man.7'  Shorn  of  his  locks 
he  probably  felt  humbled  like  the  stag 
when  he  loses  his  horns. 

Quitting  Edinburgh  on  April  5,  he 
visited,  in  succession,  Newcastle,  Leeds, 
York,  Shrewsbury,  and  Manchester,  in 
quest  of  subscribers  to  his  great  work. 
A  few  were  obtained  at  each  place  at 
two  hundred  pounds  per  head.  At 
Newcastle  he  first  met  Bewick,  the 
famous  wood  engraver,  and  conceived  a 
deep  liking  for  him. 

"We  find  him  in  London  on  May  21, 
1827,  and  not  in  a  very  happy  frame  of 
mind:  "To  me  London  is  just  like  the 
mouth  of  an  immense  monster,  guarded 
by  millions  of  sharp -edged  teeth,  from 
which,  if  I  escape  unhurt,  it  must  be 
called  a  miracle.7'  It  only  filled  him 
with  a  strong  desire  to  be  in  his  beloved 


78  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
woods  again.  His  friend,  Basil  Hall, 
had  insisted  upon  his  procuring  a  black 
suit  of  clothes.  "When  he  put  this  on  to 
attend  his  first  dinner  party,  he  spoke  of 
himself  as  "  attired  like  a  mournful 
raven,"  and  probably  more  than  ever 
wished  himself  in  the  woods. 

He  early  called  upon  the  great  por- 
trait painter,  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
who  inspected  his  drawings,  pronounced 
them  "very  clever,"  and,  in  a  few  days, 
brought  him  several  purchasers  for  some 
of  his  animal  paintings,  thus  replenish- 
ing his  purse  with  nearly  one  hundred 
pounds. 

Considering  Audubon's  shy  disposi- 
tion, and  his  dread  of  persons  in  high 
places,  it  is  curious  that  he  should  have 
wanted  to  call  upon  the  King,  and 
should  have  applied  to  the  American 
Minister,  Mr.  Gallatin,  to  help  him  to 
do  so.  Mr.  Gallatin  laughed  and  said : 
"  It  is  impossible,  my  dear  sir,  the  King 
sees  nobody  ;  he  has  the  gout,  is  peevish, 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  79 
and  spends  his  time  playing  whist  at  a 
shilling  a  rubber.  I  had  to  wait  six 
weeks  before  I  was  presented  to  him  in 
my  position  of  embassador."  But  his 
work  was  presented  to  the  King  who 
called  it  fine,  and  His  Majesty  became  a 
subscriber  on  the  usual  terms.  Other 
noble  persons  followed  suit,  yet  Audu- 
don  was  despondent.  He  had  removed 
the  publication  of  his  work  from  Edin- 
burgh to  London,  from  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Lizars  into  those  of  Eobert  Havell. 
But  the  enterprise  did  not  prosper,  his 
agents  did  not  attend  to  business,  nor  to 
his  orders,  and  he  soon  found  himself 
at  bay  for  means  to  go  forward  with  the 
work.  At  this  juncture  he  determined 
to  make  a  sortie  for  the  purpose  of  col- 
lecting his  dues  and  to  add  to  his  sub- 
scribers. He  visited  Leeds,  York,  and 
other  towns.  Under  date  of  October  9, 
at  York,  he  writes  in  his  journal : 
"How  often  I  thought  during  these 
visits  of  poor  Alexander  Wilson.  Then 


80  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
travelling  as  I  am  now,  to  procure  sub- 
scribers he,  as  well  as  myself,  was  re- 
ceived with  rude  coldness,  and  some- 
times with  that  arrogance  which  belongs 
to  parvenus.7  J 

A  week  or  two  later  we  find  him 
again  in  Edinburgh  where  he  break- 
fasted with  Professor  Wilson  ("  Chris- 
topher North77),  whom  he  greatly  en- 
joyed, a  man  without  stiffness  or  ceremo- 
nies :  "No  cravat,  no  waistcoat,  but  a 
fine  frill  of  his  own  profuse  beard,  his 
hair  flowing  uncontrolled,  and  his 
speech  dashing  at  once  at  the  object 
in  view,  without  circumlocution.  .  .  . 
He  gives  me  comfort  by  being  comforta- 
ble himself.'7 

In  early  November  he  took  the  coach 
for  Glasgow,  he  and  three  other  pas- 
sengers making  the  entire  journey 
without  uttering  a  single  word  :  1 1  We 
sat  like  so  many  owls  of  different  spe- 
cies, as  if  afraid  of  one  another. 7  7  Four 
days  in  Glasgow  and  only  one  sub- 
scriber. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      81 

Early  in  January  lie  is  back  in  Lon- 
don arranging  with  Mr.  Havell  for  the 
numbers  to  be  engraved  in  1828.  One 
day  on  looking  up  to  the  new  moon 
he  saw  a  large  flock  of  wild  ducks  pass- 
ing over,  then  presently  another  flock 
passed.  The  sight  of  these  familiar 
objects  made  him  more  homesick  than 
ever.  He  often  went  to  Begent's  Park 
to  see  the  trees,  and  the  green  grass,  and 
to  hear  the  sweet  notes  of  the  black  birds 
and  starlings. 

The  black  birds'  note  revived  his 
drooping  spirits :  to  his  wife  he  writes, 
"it  carries  my  mind  to  the  woods 
around  thee,  my  Lucy." 

Now  and  then  a  subscriber  withdrew 
his  name,  which  always  cut  him  to  the 
quick,  but  did  not  dishearten  him. 

"  January  28.  I  received  a  letter 
from  D.  Lizars  to-day  announcing  to 
me  the  loss  of  four  subscribers  ;  but 
these  things  do  not  dampen  my  spirits 
half  so  much  as  the  smoke  of  London. 
I  am  as  dull  as  a  beetle.'' 


82      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

In  February  he  learned  that  it  was 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  who  prevented 
the  British  Museum  from  subscribing 
to  his  work  :  "He  considered  the 
drawings  so-so,  and  the  engraving  and 
colouring  bad  j  when  I  remember  how 
he  praised  these  same  drawings  in  my 
presence,  I  wonder  —  that  is  all.7' 

The  rudest  man  he  met  in  England 
was  the  Earl  of  Kinnoul :  "A  small 
man  with  a  face  like  the  caricature  of  an 
owl."  He  sent  for  Audubon  to  tell 
him  that  all  his  birds  were  alike,  and 
that  he  considered  his  work  a  swindle. 
"He  may  really  think  this,  his  knowl- 
edge is  probably  small ;  but  it  is  not 
the  custom  to  send  for  a  gentleman  to 
abuse  him  in  one's  own  house."  Au- 
dubon heard  his  words,  bowed  and  left 
him  without  speaking. 

In  March  he  went  to  Cambridge  and 
met  and  was  dined  by  many  learned  men. 
The  University,  through  its  Librarian, 
subscribed  for  his  work.  Other  subscrip- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  83 
tions  followed.  He  was  introduced  to 
a  judge  who  wore  a  wig  that  "  might 
make  a  capital  bed  for  an  Osage  Indian 
during  the  whole  of  a  cold  winter  on  the 
Arkansas  Biver." 

On  his  way  to  Oxford  he  saw  them 
turn  a  stag  from  a  cart  "  before  probably 
a  hundred  hounds  and  as  many  hunts- 
men. A  curious  land,  and  a  curious 
custom,  to  catch  an  animal  and  then  set 
it  free  merely  to  catch  it  again. "  At 
Oxford  he  received  much  attention,  but 
complains  that  not  one  of  the  twenty-two 
colleges  subscribed  for  his  work,  though 
two  other  institutions  did. 

Early  in  April  we  find  him  back  in 
London  lamenting  over  his  sad  fate 
in  being  compelled  to  stay  in  so  miser- 
able a  place.  He  could  neither  write  nor 
draw  to  his  satisfaction  amid  the  ' l  bustle, 
filth,  and  smoke.'7  His  mind  and  heart 
turned  eagerly  toward  America,  and  to 
his  wife  and  boys,  and  he  began  seriously 
to  plan  for  a  year's  absence  from  Eng- 


84  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
land.  He  wanted  to  renew  and  to  im- 
prove about  fifty  of  his  drawings.  Dur- 
ing this  summer  of  1828,  he  was  very  busy 
in  London,  painting,  writing,  and  super- 
intending the  colouring  of  his  plates. 
Under  date  of  August  9,  he  writes  in 
his  journal :  "I  have  been  at  work  from 
four  every  morning  until  dark  ;  I  have 
kept  up  my  large  correspondence.  My 
publication  goes  on  well  and  regularly, 
and  this  very  day  seventy  sets  have  been 
distributed,  yet  the  number  of  my  sub- 
scribers has  not  increased ;  on  the  con- 
trary, I  have  lost  some."  He  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Swainson,  and  the  two 
men  found  much  companionship  in  each 
other,  and  had  many  long  talks  about 
birds  :  "  Why,  Lucy,  thou  wouldst  think 
that  birds  were  all  that  we  cared  for 
in  this  world,  but  thou  knowest  this  is 
not  so." 

Together  he  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Swain- 
son  planned  a  trip  to  Paris,  which  they 
carried  out  early  in  September.  It 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  85 
tickled  Audubon  greatly  to  find  that  the 
Frenchman  at  the  office  in  Calais,  who 
had  never  seen  him,  had  described  his 
complexion  in  his  passport  as  copper  red, 
because  he  was  an  American,  all  Ameri- 
cans suggesting  aborigines.  In  Paris  they 
early  went  to  call  upon  Baron  Cuvier. 
They  were  told  that  he  was  too  busy  to  be 
seen  :  "  Being  determined  to  look  at  the 
Great  Man,  we  waited,  knocked  again, 
and  with  a  certain  degree  of  firmness, 
sent  in  our  names.  The  messenger  re- 
turned, bowed,  and  led  the  way  up 
stairs,  where  in  a  minute  Monsieur  le 
Baron,  like  an  excellent  good  man,  came 
to  us.  He  had  heard  much  of  my  friend 
Swainson,  and  greeted  him  as  he  de- 
serves to  be  greeted  j  he  was  polite  and 
kind  to  me,  though  my  name  had  never 
made  its  way  to  his  ears.  I  looked  at 
him  and  here  follows  the  result :  Age 
about  sixty-five  ;  size  corpulent,  five  feet 
five  English  measure  j  head  large,  face 
wrinkled  and  brownish  ;  eyes  grey,  brill- 


86      JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON 

iant  and  sparkling  j  nose  aquiline,  large 
and  red ;  mouth  large  with  good  lips ; 
teeth  few,  blunted  by  age,  excepting  one 
on  the  lower  jaw,  measuring  nearly  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  square."  The  italics 
are  not  Audubon's.  The  great  natu- 
ralist invited  his  callers  to  dine  with  him 
at  six  on  the  next  Saturday. 

They  next  presented  their  letter  to 
Geoffroy  de  St.  Hilaire,  with  whom 
they  were  particularly  pleased.  Neither 
had  he  ever  heard  of  Audubon's  work. 
The  dinner  with  Cuvier  gave  him  a 
nearer  view  of  the  manners  and  habits 
of  the  great  man.  ' '  There  was  not  the 
show  of  opulence  at  this  dinner  that  is 
seen  in  the  same  rank  of  life  in  Eng- 
land, no,  not  by  far,  but  it  was  a  good 
dinner  served  a  la  Frangaise."  Neither 
was  it  followed  by  the  "  drinking 
matches ?  7  of  wine,  so  common  at  Eng- 
lish tables. 

During  his  stay  in  Paris  Audubon 
saw  much  of  Cuvier,  and  was  very 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  87 
kindly  and  considerately  treated  by 
him.  One  day  lie  accompanied  a  por- 
trait painter  to  his  house  and  saw  him 
sit  for  his  portrait :  "I  see  the  Baron 
now,  quite  as  plainly  as  I  did  this  morn- 
ing,—  an  old  green  surtout  about  him, 
a  neckcloth  that  would  have  wrapped 
his  whole  body  if  unfolded,  loosely 
tied  about  his  chin,  and  his  silver 
locks  looking  like  those  of  a  man  who 
loves  to  study  books  better  than  to  visit 
barbers." 

Audubon  remained  in  Paris  till  near 
the  end  of  October,  making  the  acquaint- 
ance of  men  of  science  and  of  artists, 
and  bringing  his  work  to  the  attention 
of  those  who  were  likely  to  value  it. 
Baron  Cuvier  reported  favourably  upon 
it  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  pro- 
nouncing it  "the  most  magnificent 
monument  which  has  yet  been  erected 
to  ornithology . "  He  obtained  thirteen 
subscribers  in  France  and  spent  forty 
pounds. 


88      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

On  November  9,  lie  is  back  in  Lon- 
don, and  soon  busy  painting,  and  press- 
ing forward  the  engraving  and  colouring 
of  his  work.  The  eleventh  number  was 
the  first  for  the  year  1829. 

The  winter  was  largely  taken  up  in 
getting  ready  for  his  return  trip  to 
America.  He  found  a  suitable  agent  to 
look  after  his  interests,  collected  some 
money,  paid  all  his  debts,  and  on  April 
1  sailed  from  Portsmouth  in  the  packet 
ship  Columbia.  He  was  sea-sick  during 
the  entire  voyage,  and  reached  New 
York  May  5.  He  did  not  hasten  to 
his  family  as  would  have  been  quite 
natural  after  so  long  an  absence,  but 
spent  the  summer  and  part  of  the  fall 
in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  prose- 
cuting his  studies  and  drawings  of  birds, 
making  his  headquarters  in  Camden,  New 
Jersey.  He  spent  six  weeks  in  the  Great 
Pine  Forest,  and  much  time  at  Great 
Egg  Harbor,  and  has  given  delightful 
accounts  of  these  trips  in  his  journals. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  89 
Four  hours'  sleep  out  of  the  twenty- 
four  was  his  allotted  allowance. 

One  often  marvels  at  Audubon's  ap- 
parent indifference  to  his  wife  and  his 
home,  for  from  the  first  he  was  given  to 
wandering.  Then,  too,  his  carelessness 
in  money  matters,  and  his  improvident 
ways,  necessitating  his  wife's  toiling  to 
support  the  family,  put  him  in  a  rather 
unfavourable  light  as  a  "  good  provider, ' ' 
but  a  perusal  of  his  journal  shows  that 
he  was  keenly  alive  to  all  the  hardships 
and  sacrifices  of  his  wife,  and  from  first 
to  last  in  his  journeyings  he  speaks  of  his 
longings  for  home  and  family.  "Cut 
off  from  all  dearest  me,"  he  says  in  one 
of  his  youthful  journeys,  and  in  his 
latest  one  he  speaks  of  himself  as  being 
as  happy  as  one  can  be  who  is  "three 
thousand  miles  from  the  dearest  friend 
on  earth."  Clearly  some  impelling 
force  held  him  to  the  pursuit  of  this 
work,  hardships  or  no  hardships.  Fort- 
tunately  for  him,  his  wife  shared  his  be- 


90      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
lief  in  his  talents  and  in  their  ultimate 
recognition. 

Under  date  of  October  11,  1829,  he 
writes  :  "I  am  at  work  and  have  done 
much,  but  I  wish  I  had  eight  pairs  of 
hands,  and  another  body  to  shoot  the 
specimens  ;  still  I  am  delighted  at  what 
I  have  accumulated  in  drawings  this 
season.  Forty -two  drawings  in  four 
months,  eleven  large,  eleven  middle 
size,  and  twenty-two  small,  comprising 
ninety-five  birds,  from  eagles  down- 
wards, with  plants,  nests,  flowers,  and 
sixty  different  kinds  of  eggs.  I  live 
alone,  see  scarcely  anyone  besides  those 
belonging  to  the  house  where  I  lodge.  I 
rise  long  before  day,  and  work  till  night- 
fall, when  I  take  a  walk  and  to  bed.'' 

Audubon's  capacity  for  work  was  ex- 
traordinary. His  enthusiasm  and  per- 
severance were  equally  extraordinary. 
His  purposes  and  ideas  fairly  possessed 
him.  Never  did  a  man  consecrate  him- 
self more  fully  to  the  successful  com- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  91 
pletion  of  the  work  of  his  life,  than  did 
Audubon  to  the  finishing  of  his  "  Ameri- 
can Ornithology." 

During  this  month  Audubon  left 
Camden  and  turned  his  face  toward 
his  wife  and  children,  crossing  the 
mountains  to  Pittsburg  in  the  mail 
coach  with  his  dog  and  gun,  thence 
down  the  Ohio  in  a  steamboat  to  Louis- 
ville, where  he  met  his  son  Victor, 
whom  he  had  not  seen  for  five  years. 
After  a  few  days  here  with  his  two  boys, 
he  started  for  Bayou  Sara  to  see  his  wife. 
Beaching  Mr.  Johnson's  house  in  the 
early  morning,  he  went  at  once  to  his 
wife's  apartment :  "Her  door  was  ajar, 
already  she  was  dressed  and  sitting  by 
her  piano,  on  which  a  young  lady  was 
playing.  I  pronounced  her  name  gently, 
she  saw  me,  and  the  next  moment  I  held 
her  in  -  my  arms.  Her  emotion  was  so 
great  I  feared  I  had  acted  rashly,  but 
tears  relieved  our  hearts,  once  more  we 
were  together." 


92      JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

Mrs.  Audubon  soon  settled  up  her 
affairs  at  Bayou  Sara,  and  the  two  set 
out  early  in  January,  1830,  for  Louis- 
ville, thence  to  Cincinnati,  thence  to 
Wheeling,  and  so  on  to  Washington, 
where  Audubon  exhibited  his  drawings 
to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  and  re- 
ceived their  subscriptions  as  a  body. 
In  Washington,  he  met  the  President, 
Andrew  Jackson,  and  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Edward  Everett.  Thence 
to  Baltimore  where  he  obtained  three 
more  subscribers,  thence  to  New  York 
from  which  port  he  sailed  in  April  with 
his  wife  on  the  packet  ship  Pacific,  for 
England,  and  arrived  at  Liverpool  in 
twenty-five  days. 

This  second  sojourn  in  England  lasted 
till  the  second  of  August,  1831.  The 
time  was  occupied  in  pushing  the  pub- 
lication of  his  "  Birds, "  canvassing  the 
country  for  new  subscribers,  painting 
numerous  pictures  for  sale,  writing  his 
' '  Ornithological  Biography, ' '  living  part 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  93 
of  the  time  in  Edinburgh,  and  part  of 
the  time  in  London,  with  two  or  three 
months  passed  in  France,  where  there 
were  fourteen  subscribers.  While  ab- 
sent in  America,  he  had  been  elected  a 
fellow  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of  London, 
and  on  May  6  took  his  seat  in  the  great 
hall. 

He  needed  some  competent  person 
to  assist  him  in  getting  his  manuscript 
ready  for  publication  and  was  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  obtain  the  services  of  Mac- 
Gillivray,  the  biographer  of  British 
Birds. 

Audubon  had  learned  that  three  edi- 
tions of  Wilson's  "  Ornithology ' >  were 
soon  to  be  published  in  Edinburgh,  and 
he  set  to  work  vigorously  to  get  his  book 
out  before  them.  Assisted  by  MacGil- 
livray,  he  worked  hard  at  his  biography 
of  the  birds,  writing  all  day,  and  Mrs. 
Audubon  making  a  copy  of  the  work  to 
send  to  America  to  secure  copyright 
there.  Writing  to  her  sons  at  this  time, 


94  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
Mrs.  Audubon  says  :  ' i  Nothing  is  heard 
but  the  steady  movement  of  the  pen ; 
your  father  is  up  and  at  work  before 
dawn,  and  writes  without  ceasing  all 
day." 

When  the  first  volume  was  finished, 
Audubon  offered  it  to  two  publishers, 
both  of  whom  refused  it,  so  he  pub- 
lished it  himself  in  March,  1831. 

In  April  on  his  way  to  London  he 
travelled  "on  that  Extraordinary  road 
called  the  railway,  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
four  miles  an  hour." 

The  first  volume  of  his  bird  pictures 
was  completed  this  summer,  and,  in 
bringing  it  out,  forty  thousand  dollars 
had  passed  through  his  hands.  It  had 
taken  four  years  to  bring  that  volume 
before  the  world,  during  which  time  no 
less  than  fifty  of  his  subscribers,  repre- 
senting the  sum  of  fifty-six  thousand 
dollars,  had  abandoned  him,  so  that  at 
the  end  of  that  time,  he  had  only  one 
hundred  and  thirty  names  standing  on 
his  list. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON      95 

It  was  no  easy  thing  to  secure  enough 
men  to  pledge  themselves  to  $1, 000  for  a 
work,  the  publication  of  which  must  of 
necessity  extend  over  eight  or  ten  years. 

Few  enterprises,  involving  such  labour 
and  expense,  have  ever  been  carried 
through  against  such  odds. 

The  entire  cost  of  the  "Birds"  ex- 
ceeded one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
yet  the  author  never  faltered  in  this 
gigantic  undertaking. 

On  August  2,  Audubon  and  his 
wife  sailed  for  America,  and  landed 
in  New  York  on  September  4.  They 
at  once  went  to  Louisville  where  the 
wife  remained  with  her  sons,  while 
the  husband  went  to  Florida  where  the 
winter  of  1831-2  was  spent,  prosecuting 
his  studies  of  our  birds.  His  adventures 
and  experiences  in  Florida,  he  has 
embodied  in  his  Floridian  Episodes, 
"The  Live  Oakers,"  "Spring  Gar- 
den," "Deer  Hunting,"  "Sandy  Isl- 
and," "The  Wreckers,"  "The  Tur- 


96  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
ties,"  "Death  of  a  Pirate,"  and  other 
sketches.  Stopping  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  on  this  southern  trip,  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  Keverend  John 
Bachman,  and  a  friendship  between 
these  two  men  was  formed  that  lasted 
as  long  as  they  both  lived.  Subse- 
quently, Audubon's  sons,  Victor  and 
John,  married  Dr.  Bachman7  s  two  eld- 
est daughters. 

In  the  summer  of  1832,  Audubon, 
accompanied  by  his  wife  and  two  sons, 
made  a  trip  to  Maine  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, going  very  leisurely  by  private 
conveyance  through  these  countries, 
studying  the  birds,  the  people,  the 
scenery,  and  gathering  new  material 
for  his  work.  His  diaries  give  minute 
accounts  of  these  journeyings.  He  was 
impressed  by  the  sobriety  of  the  people 
of  Maine  ;  they  seem  to  have  had  a 
' '  Maine  law ' 7  at  that  early  date  ;  "for  on 
asking  for  brandy,  rum,  or  whiskey,  not 
a  drop  could  I  obtain."  He  saw  much 


JOHK  JAMES  AUDUBON  97 
of  the  lumbermen  and  was  a  deeply  in- 
terested spectator  of  their  ways  and 
doings.  Some  of  his  best  descriptive 
passages  are  contained  in  these  diaries. 

In  October  he  is  back  in  Boston  plan- 
ning a  trip  to  Labrador,  and  intent  on 
adding  more  material  to  his  " Birds7' 
by  another  year  in  his  home  country. 

That  his  interests  abroad  in  the  mean- 
time might  not  suffer  by  being  entirely 
in  outside  hands,  he  sent  his  son  Victor, 
now  a  young  man  of  considerable  busi- 
ness experience,  to  England  to  repre- 
sent him  there.  The  winter  of  1832 
and  1833  Audubon  seems  to  have  spent 
mainly  in  Boston,  drawing  and  re-draw- 
ing and  there  he  had  his  first  serious  ill- 
ness. 

In  the  spring  of  1833,  a  schooner 
was  chartered  and,  accompanied  by  five 
young  men,  his  youngest  son,  John 
Woodhouse,  among  them,  Audubon 
started  on  his  Labrador  trip,  which 
lasted  till  the  end  of  summer.  It  was 


98  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
an  expensive  and  arduous  trip,  but  was 
greatly  enjoyed  by  all  hands,  and  was 
fruitful  in  new  material  for  his  work. 
Seventy-three  bird  skins  were  prepared, 
many  drawings  made,  and  many  new 
plants  collected. 

The  weather  in  Labrador  was  for  the 
most  part  rainy,  foggy,  cold,  and  windy, 
and  his  drawings  were  made  in  the  cabin 
of  his  vessel,  often  under  great  difficul- 
ties. He  makes  this  interesting  observa- 
tion upon  the  Eider  duck:  "In  one 
nest  of  the  Eider  ten  eggs  were  found ; 
this  is  the  most  we  have  seen  as  yet  in 
any  one  nest.  The  female  draws  the 
down  from  her  abdomen  as  far  toward 
her  breast  as  her  bill  will  allow  her  to 
do,  but  the  feathers  are  not  pulled,  and 
on  examination  of  several  specimens, 
I  found  these  well  and  regularly  planted, 
and  cleaned  from  their  original  down,  as 
a  forest  of  trees  is  cleared  of  its  under- 
growth. In  this  state  the  female  is  still 
well  clothed,  and  little  or  no  difference 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  99 
can  be  seen  in  the  plumage,  unless  ex- 
amined." 

He  gives  this  realistic  picture  of 
salmon  fishermen  that  his  party  saw  in 
Labrador  :  t  i  On  going  to  a  house  on  the 
shore,  we  found  it  a  tolerably  good 
cabin,  floored,  containing  a  good  stove, 
a  chimney,  and  an  oven  at  the  bottom 
of  this,  like  the  ovens  of  the  French 
peasants,  three  beds,  and  a  table  whereon 
the  breakfast  of  the  family  was  served. 
This  consisted  of  coffee  in  large  bowk, 
good  bread,  and  fried  salmon.  Three 
Labrador  dogs  came  and  sniffed  about 
us,  and  then  returned  under  the  table 
whence  they  had  issued,  with  no  appear- 
ance of  anger.  Two  men,  two  women, 
and  a  babe  formed  the  group,  which 
I  addressed  in  French.  They  were 
French- Canadians  and  had  been  here 
several  years,  winter  and  summer,  and 
are  agents  for  the  Fur  and  Fish  Co.,  who 
give  them  food,  clothes,  and  about  $80 
per  annum.  They  have  a  cow  and  an 


100  JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON 
ox,  about  an  acre  of  potatoes  planted  in 
sand,  seven  feet  of  snow  in  winter,  and 
two-thirds  less  salmon  than  was  caught 
here  ten  years  since.  Then,  three  hun- 
dred barrels  was  a  fair  season  ;  now  one 
hundred  is  the  maximum ;  this  is  be- 
cause they  will  catch  the  fish  both  as- 
cending and  descending  the  river.  Dur- 
ing winter  the  men  hunt  Foxes,  Martens, 
and  Sables,  and  kill  some  bear  of  the 
black  kind,  but  neither  Deer  nor  other 
game  is  to  be  found  without  going  a 
great  distance  in  the  interior,  where 
Eeindeer  are  now  and  then  procured. 
One  species  of  Grouse,  and  one  of  Ptar- 
migan, the  latter  white  at  all  seasons ; 
the  former,  I  suppose  to  be,  the  Willow 
Grouse.  The  men  would  neither  sell 
nor  give  us  a  single  salmon,  saying, 
that  so  strict  were  their  orders  that, 
should  they  sell  one,  the  place  might  be 
taken  from  them.  If  this  should  prove 
the  case  everywhere,  I  shall  not  pur- 
chase many  for  my  friends.  The  furs 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  101 
which  they  collect  are  sent  off  to  Quebec 
at  the  first  opening  of  the  waters  in 
spring,  and  not  a  skin  of  any  sort  was 
here  for  us  to  look  at.'7 

He  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  face 
of  Nature  in  Labrador  on  a  fine  day, 
under  date  of  July  2 :  "A  beautiful 
day  for  Labrador.  Drew  another  M. 
articus.  Went  on  shore,  and  was  most 
pleased  with  what  I  saw.  The  country, 
so  wild  and  grand,  is  of  itself  enough  to 
interest  any  one  in  its  wonderful  dreari- 
ness. Its  mossy,  grey -clothed  rocks, 
heaped  and  thrown  together  as  if  by 
chance,  in  the  most  fantastical  groups 
imaginable,  huge  masses  hanging  on 
minor  ones  as  if  about  to  roll  themselves 
down  from  their  doubtful-looking  situa- 
tions, into  the  depths  of  the  sea  beneath. 
Bays  without  end,  sprinkled  with  rocky 
islands  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  where  in 
every  fissure  a  Guillemot,  a  Cormorant, 
or  some  other  wild  bird  retreats  to  secure 
its  egg,  and  raise  its  young,  or  save  itself 

UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BAJRiiARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


102    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

from  the  hunter's  pursuit.  The  peculiar 
cast  of  the  sky,  which  never  seems  to  be 
certain,  butterflies  flitting  over  snow- 
banks, probing  beautiful  dwarf  flowerets 
of  many  hues,  pushing  their  tender  stems 
from  the  thick  bed  of  moss  which  every- 
where covers  the  granite  rocks.  Then 
the  morasses,  wherein  you  plunge  up  to 
your  knees,  or  the  walking  over  the 
stubborn,  dwarfish  shrubbery,  making 
one  think  that  as  he  goes  he  treads  down 
the  forests  of  Labrador.  The  unexpected 
Bunting,  or  perhaps  Sylvia,  which,  per- 
chance, an"d  indeed  as  if  by  chance  alone, 
you  now  and  then  see  flying  before  you, 
or  hear  singing  from  the  creeping  plants 
on  the  ground.  The  beautiful  fresh- 
water lakes,  on  the  rugged  crests  of 
greatly  elevated  islands,  wherein  the  Eed 
and  Black-necked  Divers  swim  as  proudly 
as  swans  do  in  other  latitudes,  and  where 
the  fish  appear  to  have  been  cast  as 
strayed  beings  from  the  surplus  food  of 
the  ocean.  All — all  is  wonderfully 


JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON  103 
grand,  wild  —  aye,  and  terrific.  And 
yet  how  beautiful  it  is  now,  when  one 
sees  the  wild  bee,  moving  from  one  flower 
to  another  in  search  of  food,  which  doubt- 
less is  as  sweet  to  it,  as  the  essence  of 
the  magnolia  is  to  those  of  favoured  Lou- 
isiana. The  little  Eing  Plover  rearing 
its  delicate  and  tender  young,  the  Eider 
Duck  swimming  man-of-war-like  amid 
her  floating  brood,  like  the  guardship  of 
a  most  valuable  convoy ;  the  White- 
crowned  Bunting's  sonorous  note  reach- 
ing the  ear  ever  and  anon ;  the  crowds 
of  sea  birds  in  search  of  places  wherein 
to  repose  or  to  feed  —  how  beautiful  is 
all  this  in  this  wonderful  rocky  desert  at 
this  season,  the  beginning  of  July,  com- 
pared with  the  horrid  blasts  of  winter 
which  here  predominate  by  the  will  of 
God,  when  every  rock  is  rendered  smooth 
with  snows  so  deep  that  every  step  the 
traveller  takes  is  as  if  entering  into  his 
grave ;  for  even  should  he  escape  an 
avalanche,  his  eye  dreads  to  search  the 


104  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
horizon,  for  full  well  he  knows  that 
snow — snow  is  all  that  can  be  seen.  I 
watched  the  Eing  Plover  for  some  time  ; 
the  parents  were  so  intent  on  saving  their 
young  that  they  both  lay  on  the  rocks  as 
if  shot,  quivering  their  wings  and  drag- 
ging their  bodies  as  if  quite  disabled. 
We  left  them  and  their  young  to  the  care 
of  the  Creator.  I  would  not  have  shot 
one  of  the  old  ones,  or  taken  one  of  the 
young  for  any  consideration,  and  I  was 
glad  my  young  men  were  as  forbearing. 
The  L.  marinus  is  extremely  abundant 
here ;  they  are  forever  harassing  every 
other  bird,  sucking  their  eggs,  and  de- 
vouring their  young  ;  they  take  here  the 
place  of  Eagles  and  Hawks ;  not  an  Eagle 
have  we  seen  yet,  and  only  two  or  three 
small  Hawks,  and  one  small  Owl ;  yet 
what  a  harvest  they  would  have  here, 
were  there  trees  for  them  to  rest  upon." 
On  his  return  from  Labrador  in  Sep- 
tember, Audubon  spent  three  weeks  in 
New  York,  after  which  with  his  wife,  he 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  105 
started  upon  another  southern  trip,  paus- 
ing at  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Wash- 
ington, and  Eichmond.  In  Washington 
he  made  some  attempts  to  obtain  per- 
mission to  accompany  a  proposed  expe- 
dition to  the  Eocky  Mountains,  under 
Government  patronage.  But  the  cold 
and  curt  manner  in  which  Cass,  then 
Secretary  of  War,  received  his  appli- 
cation, quite  disheartened  him.  But  he 
presently  met  Washington  Irving,  whose 
friendly  face  and  cheering  words  revived 
his  spirits.  How  one  would  like  a  picture 
of  that  meeting  in  Washington  between 
Audubon  and  Irving — two  men  who  in 
so  many  ways  were  kindred  spirits. 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  was 
reached  late  in  October,  and  at  the 
home  of  their  friend  Bachman  the  Au- 
dubons  seem  to  have  passed  the  most  of 
the  winter  of  1833-4:  "My  time  was 
well  employed  ;  I  hunted  for  new  birds 
or  searched  for  more  knowledge  of  old. 
I  drew,  I  wrote  many  long  pages.  I  ob- 


106  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
tained  a  few  new  subscribers,  and  made 
some  collections  on  account  of  my  work." 
His  son  Victor  wrote  desiring  the 
presence  of  his  father  in  England,  and  on 
April  16,  we  find  him  with  his  wife  and 
son  John,  again  embarked  for  Liverpool. 
In  due  time  they  are  in  London  where 
they  find  Victor  well,  and  the  business  of 
publication  going  on  prosperously.  One 
of  the  amusing  incidents  of  this  sojourn, 
narrated  in  the  diaries,  is  Audubon's  and 
his  son's  interview  with  the  Baron  Koth- 
schild,  to  whom  he  had  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction from  a  distinguished  American 
banking  house.  The  Baron  was  not 
present  when  they  entered  his  private 
office,  but  "soon  a  corpulent  man  ap- 
peared, hitching  up  his  trousers,  and  a 
face  red  with  the  exertion  of  walking, 
and  without  noticing  anyone  present, 
dropped  his  fat  body  into  a  comfortable 
chair,  as  if  caring  for  no  one  else  in  this 
wide  world  but  himself.  While  the 
Baron  sat,  we  stood,  with  our  hats  held 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDTJBON  107 
respectfully  in  our  hands.  I  stepped 
forward,  and  with  a  bow  tendered  my 
credentials.  'Pray,  sir,7  said  the  man 
of  golden  consequence,  '  is  this  a  letter  of 
business,  or  is  it  a  mere  letter  of  intro- 
duction f '  This  I  could  not  well  answer, 
for  I  had  not  read  the  contents  of  it,  and 
I  was  forced  to  answer  rather  awkwardly, 
that  I  could  not  tell.  The  banker  then 
opened  the  letter,  read  it  with  the  man- 
ner of  one  who  was  looking  only  at  the 
temporal  side  of  things,  and  after  reading 
it  said,  *  This  is  only  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction, and  I  expect  from  its  contents 
that  you  are  the  publisher  of  some  book 
or  other  and  need  my  subscription. J 

u  Had  a  man  the  size  of  a  mountain 
spoken  to  me  in  that  arrogant  style  in 
America,  I  should  have  indignantly  re- 
sented it ;  but  where  I  then  was  it 
seemed  best  to  swallow  and  digest  it  as 
well  as  I  could.  So  in  reply  to  the  of- 
fensive arrogance  of  the  banker,  I  said  I 
should  be  honoured  by  his  subscription  to 


108  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
the  i  l  Birds  of  America. ' '  c  Sir, 7  he  said, 
1 1  never  sign  my  name  to  any  subscrip- 
tion list,  but  you  may  send  in  your  work 
and  I  will  pay  for  a  copy  of  it.  Gentle- 
men, I  am  busy.  I  wish  you  good  morn- 
ing. J  We  were  busy  men,  too,  and  so 
bowing  respectfully,  we  retired,  pretty 
well  satisfied  with  the  small  slice  of  his 
opulence  which  our  labour  was  likely  to 
obtain. 

"A  few  days  afterwards  I  sent  the 
first  volume  of  my  work  half  bound,  and 
all  the  numbers  besides,  then  published. 
On  seeing  them  we  were  told  that  he 
ordered  the  bearer  to  take  them  to  his 
house,  which  was  done  directly.  Num- 
ber after  number  was  sent  and  delivered 
to  the  Baron,  and  after  eight  or  ten 
months  my  son  made  out  his  account  and 
sent  it  by  Mr.  Havell,  my  engraver,  to 
his  banking-house.  The  Baron  looked 
at  it  with  amazement,  and  cried  out, 
'What,  a  hundred  pounds  for  birds! 
Why,  sir,  I  will  give  you  five  pounds 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  109 
and  not  a  farthing  more  ! 7  Bepresenta- 
tions  were  made  to  him  of  the  magnifi- 
cence and  expense  of  the  work,  and  how 
pleased  his  Baroness  and  wealthy  chil- 
dren would  be  to  have  a  copy  ;  but  the 
great  financier  was  unrelenting.  The 
copy  of  the  work  was  actually  sent 
back  to  Mr.  HavelPs  shop,  and  as  I  found 
that  instituting  legal  proceedings  against 
him  would  cost  more  than  it  would  come 
to,  I  kept  the  work,  and  afterwards  sold 
it  to  a  man  with  less  money  but  a  nobler 
heart.  What  a  distance  there  is  between 
two  such  men  as  the  Baron  Eothschild 
of  London,  and  the  merchant  of  Savan- 
nah!" 

Audubon  remained  in  London  during 
the  summer  of  1834,  and  in  the  fall  re- 
moved to  Edinburgh,  where  he  hired  a 
house  and  spent  a  year  and  a  half  at 
work  on  his  "  Ornithological  Biogra- 
phy," the  second  and  third  volumes  of 
which  were  published  during  that  time. 

In  the  summer  of  1836,  he  returned 


110  JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON 
to  London,  where  he  settled  his  family 
in  Cavendish  Square,  and  in  July, 
with  his  son  John,  took  passage  at 
Portsmouth  for  New  York,  desiring  to 
explore  more  thoroughly  the  southern 
states  for  new  material  for  his  work. 
On  his  arrival  in  New  York,  Audubon, 
to  his  deep  mortification,  found  that  all 
his  books,  papers,  and  valuable  and  curi- 
ous things,  which  he  had  collected  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  had  been  destroyed 
in  the  great  fire  in  New  York,  in  1835. 

In  September  he  spent  some  time  in 
Boston  where  he  met  Brewer  and  Nut- 
tall,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Daniel 
Webster,  Judge  Story,  and  others. 

Writing  to  his  son  in  England,  at 
this  time,  admonishing  him  to  carry  on 
the  work,  should  he  himself  be  taken 
away  prematurely,  he  advises  him  thus  : 
"  Should  you  deem  it  wise  to  remove 
the  publication  of  the  work  to  this  coun- 
try, I  advise  you  to  settle  in  Boston ;  I 
have  faith  in  the  Bostonians." 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  111 
In  Salem  lie  called  upon  a  wealthy 
young  lady  by  the  name  of  Silsby,  who 
had  the  eyes  of  a  gazelle,  but  "when  I 
mentioned  subscription  it  seemed  to  fall 
on  her  ears,  not  as  the  cadence  of  the 
wood  thrush,  or  of  the  mocking  bird 
does  on  mine,  but  as  a  shower  bath  in 
cold  January. " 

From  Boston  Audubon  returned  in 
October  to  New  York,  and  thence  went 
southward  through  Philadelphia  to 
Washington,  carrying  with  him  letters 
from  Washington  Irving  to  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  then  the  Attorney  General  of 
the  United  States,  and  to  Martin  Van 
Buren  who  had  just  been  elected  to  the 
presidency.  Butler  was  then  quite  a 
young  man:  "He  read  Washington 
Irving' s  letter,  laid  it  down,  and 
began  a  long  talk  about  his  talents, 
and  after  a  while  came  round  to  my 
business,  saying  that  the  Government 
allows  so  little  money  to  the  depart- 
ments, that  he  did  not  think  it  prob- 


112    JOHtf  JAMES  AUDUBON 
able  that  their   subscription  could   be 
obtained  without  a  law  to  that  effect 
from  Congress. " 

At  this  time  he  also  met  the  Presi- 
dent, General  Jackson  :  ' '  He  was  very 
kind,  and  as  soon  as  he  heard  that  we 
intended  departing  to-morrow  evening 
for  Charleston,  invited  us  to  dine 
with  him  en  famille.  At  the  hour 
named  we  went  to  the  White  House, 
and  were  taken  into  a  room,  where 
the  President  soon  joined  us,  I  sat 
close  to  him ;  we  spoke  of  olden  times, 
and  touched  slightly  on  politics,  and  I 
found  him  very  averse  to  the  Cause  of 
the  Texans.  .  .  .  The  dinner  was  what 
might  be  called  plain  and  substantial  in 
England ;  I  dined  from  a  fine  young 
turkey,  shot  within  twenty  miles  of 
Washington.  The  General  drank  no 
wine,  but  his  health  was  drunk  by  us 
more  than  once  ;  and  he  ate  very  mod- 
erately ;  his  last  dish  consisting  of  bread 
and  milk." 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  113 
In  November  Audubon  is  again  at  the 
house  of  his  friend  Dr.  Bachman,  in 
Charleston,  South  Carolina.  Here  he 
passed  the  winter  of  1836-7,  making 
excursions  to  various  points  farther 
south,  going  as  far  as  Florida.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  he  seems  to  have 
begun,  in  connection  with  Dr.  Bachman, 
his  studies  in  Natural  History  which 
resulted  in  the  publication,  a  few  years 
later,  of  the  u  Quadrupeds  of  North 
America.77 

In  the  spring  he  left  Charleston  and 
set  out  to  explore  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
going  to  Galveston  and  thence  well  into 
Texas,  where  he  met  General  Sam  Hous- 
ton. Here  is  one  of  his  vivid,  realistic 
pen  pictures  of  the  famous  Texan  :  t  i  We 
walked  towards  the  President's  house,  ac- 
companied by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
and  as  soon  as  we  rose  above  the  bank, 
we  saw  before  us  a  level  of  far-extend- 
ing prairie,  destitute  of  timber,  and 
rather  poor  soil.  Houses  half  finished, 


114    JOHK   JAMES  ATJDUBOX 

and  most  of  them  without  roofc,  tents, 
and  a  liberty  pole,  with  the  capitol, 
were  all  exhibited  to  our  view  at  once. 
We  approached  the  President's  man- 
sion, however,  wading  through  water 
above  our  ankles.  This  abode  of 
President  Houston  is  a  small  log  house, 
consisting  of  two  rooms,  and  a  passage 
through,  after  the  southern  fashion. 
The  moment  we  stepped  over  the  thresh- 
old, on  the  right  hand  of  the  passage  we 
found  ourselves  ushered  into  what  in 
other  countries  would  be  called  the 
ante- chamber ;  the  ground  floor,  how- 
ever, was  muddy  and  filthy,  a  large  fire 
was  burning,  a  small  table  covered 
with  paper  and  writing  materials,  was 
in  the  centre,  camp-beds,  trunks,  and 
different  materials,  were  strewed  about 
the  room.  We  were  at  once  presented 
to  several  members  of  the  cabinet,  some 
of  whom  bore  the  stamp  of  men  of  intel- 
lectual ability,  simple,  though  bold,  in 
their  general  appearance.  Here  we 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  115 
were  presented  to  Mr.  Crawford,  an 
agent  of  the  British  Minister  to  Mexico, 
who  has  come  here  on  some  secret  mis- 
sion. 

"The  President  was  engaged  in  the 
opposite  room  on  some  national  busi- 
ness, and  we  could  not  see  him  for  some 
time.  Meanwhile  we  amused  ourselves 
by  walking  to  the  capitol,  which  was 
yet  without  a  roof,  and  the  floors, 
benches,  and  tables  of  both  houses  of 
Congress  were  as  well  saturated  with 
water  as  our  clothes  had  been  in  the 
morning.  Being  invited  by  one  of 
the  great  men  of  the  place  to  enter  a 
booth  to  take  a  drink  of  grog  with 
him,  we  did  so  ;  but  I  was  rather  sur- 
prised that  he  offered  his  name,  instead 
of  the  ca^sh  to  the  bar-keeper. 

"We  first  caught  sight  of  President 
Houston  as  he  walked  from  one  of  the 
grog  shops,  where  he  had  been  to  pre- 
vent the  sale  of  ardent  spirits.  He  was 
on  his  way  to  his  house,  and  wore  a 


116    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

large  grey  coarse  hat ;  and  the  bulk  of 
his  figure  reminded  me  of  the  appear- 
ance of  General  Hopkins  of  Virginia, 
for  like  him  he  is  upwards  of  six  feet 
high,  and  strong  in  proportion.  But  I 
observed  a  scowl  in  the  expression  of  his 
eyes,  that  was  forbidding  and  disagree- 
able. We  reached  his  abode  before  him, 
but  he  soon  came,  and  we  were  presented 
to  his  excellency.  He  was  dressed  in  a 
fancy  velvet  coat,  and  trousers  trimmed 
with  broad  gold  lace  j  around  his  neck 
was  tied  a  cravat  somewhat  in  the  style 
of  seventy-six.  He  received  us  kindly, 
was  desirous  of  retaining  us  for  awhile, 
and  offered  us  every  facility  within  his 
power.  He  at  once  removed  us  from 
the  ante-room  to  his  private  chamber, 
which,  by  the  way,  was  not  much 
cleaner  than  the  former.  We  were 
severally  introduced  by  him  to  the  dif- 
ferent members  of  his  cabinet  and  staff, 
and  at  once  asked  to  drink  grog  with 
him,  which  we  did,  wishing  success  to 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  117 
his  new  republic.  Our  talk  was  short : 
but  the  impression  which  was  made  on 
my  mind  at  the  time  by  himself,  his  offi- 
cers, and  his  place  of  abode,  can  never 
be  forgotten." 

Late  in  the  summer  of  1837,  Audu- 
bon,  with  his  son  John  and  his  new  wife 
—  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Bachman,  re- 
turned to  England  for  the  last  time.  He 
finally  settled  down  again  in  Edinburgh 
and  prepared  the  fourth  volume  of 
his  "Ornithological  Biography."  This 
work  seems  to  have  occupied  him  a  year. 
The  volume  was  published  in  November, 
1838.  More  drawings  for  his  "  Birds  of 
America '  >  were  finished  the  next  winter, 
and  also  the  fifth  volume  of  the  " Biogra- 
phy > '  which  was  published  in  May,  1839. 

In  the  fall  of  that  year  the  family 
returned  to  America  and  settled  in 
New  York  City,  at  86  White  street. 
His  great  work,  the  "  Birds  of  America," 
had  been  practically  completed,  incredi- 
ble difficulties  had  been  surmounted,  and 


118  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
the  goal  of  his  long  years  of  striving  had 
been  reached.  About  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  copies  of  his  "  Birds "  had 
been  delivered  to  subscribers,  eighty  of 
the  number  in  this  country. 

In  a  copy  of  the  "  Ornithological 
Biography'7  given  in  1844  by  Audubon 
to  J.  Prescott  Hall,  the  following  note, 
preserved  in  the  Magazine  of  American 
History  (1877)  was  written  by  Mr.  Hall. 
It  is  reproduced  here  in  spite  of  its  vari- 
ance from  statements  now  accepted  :  — 

"Mr.  Audubon  told  me  in  the  year 
184-  that  he  did  not  sell  more  than  40 
copies  of  his  great  work  in  England, 
Ireland,  Scotland  and  France,  of  which 
Louis  Philippe  took  10. 

"The  following  received  their  copies 
but  never  paid  for  them :  George  IV., 
Duchess  of  Clarence,  Marquis  of  London- 
derry, Princess  of  Hesse  Homburg. 

"  An  Irish  lord  whose  name  he  would 
not  give,  took  two  copies  and  paid  for 
neither.  Eothschild  paid  for  his  copy, 
but  with  great  reluctance. 


JOHN   JAMES    AUDUBON    119 

"He  further  said  that   he    sold    75 

copies  in  America,  26  in  New  York  and 

24  in  Boston ;  that  the  work  cost  him 

£27,000  and  that  he  lost  $25,000  by  it. 

"  He  said  that  Louis  Philippe  offered 
to  subscribe  for  100  copies  if  he  would 
publish  the  work  in  Paris.  This  he 
found  could  not  be  done,  as  it  would 
have  required  40  years  to  finish  it  as 
things  were  then  in  Paris.  Of  this  con- 
versation I  made  a  memorandum  at  the 
time  which  I  read  over  to  Mr.  Audubon 
and  he  pronounced  it  correct. 

"  J.  PRESCOTT  HALL." 


IV. 

ABOUT  the  very  great  merit  of  this 
work,  there  is  but  one  opinion  among 
competent  judges.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
monument  to  the  man's  indomitable 
energy  and  perseverance,  and  it  is  a 
monument  to  the  science  of  ornithology. 
The  drawings  of  the  birds  are  very  spir- 
ited and  life  like,  and  their  biographies 
copious,  picturesque,  and  accurate,  and, 
taken  in  connection  with  his  many  jour- 
nals, they  afford  glimpses  of  the  life  of 
the  country  during  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  that  are  of  very  great  interest 
and  value. 

In  writing  the  biography  of  the  birds 
he  wrote  his  autobiography  as  well ;  he 
wove  his  doings  and  adventures  into  his 
natural  history  observations.  This  gives 
a  personal  flavour  to  his  pages,  and  is 
the  main  source  of  their  charm. 

His  account  of  the  Eosebreasted  Gros- 
beak is  a  good  sample  of  his  work  in  this 
respect : 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  121 
"One  year,  in  the  month  of  August,  I 
was  trudging  along  the  shores  of  the 
Mohawk  river,  when  night  overtook  me. 
Being  little  acquainted  with  that  part  of 
the  country,  I  resolved  to  camp  where  I 
was ;  the  evening  was  calm  and  beauti- 
ful, the  sky  sparkled  with  stars  which 
were  reflected  by  the  smooth  waters,  and 
the  deep  shade  of  the  rocks  and  trees  of 
the  opposite  shore  fell  on  the  bosom  of 
the  stream,  while  gently  from  afar  came 
on  the  ear  the  muttering  sound  of  the 
cataract.  My  little  fire  was  soon  lighted 
under  a  rock,  and,  spreading  out  my 
scanty  stock  of  provisions,  I  reclined  on 
nay  grassy  couch.  As  I  looked  on  the 
fading  features  of  the  beautiful  land- 
scape, my  heart  turned  towards  my  dis- 
tant home,  where  my  friends  were  doubt- 
less wishing  me,  as  I  wish  them,  a  happy 
night  and  peaceful  slumbers.  Then  were 
heard  the  barkings  of  the  watch  dog,  and 
I  tapped  my  faithful  companion  to  pre- 
vent his  answering  them.  The  thoughts 


122    JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON 

of  my  worldly  mission  then  came  over 
my  mind,  and  having  thanked  the  Crea- 
tor of  all  for  his  never-failing  mercy,  I 
closed  my  eyes,  and  was  passing  away 
into  the  world  of  dreaming  existence, 
when  suddenly  there  burst  on  my  soul  the 
serenade  of  the  Eosebreasted  bird,  so  rich, 
so  mellow,  so  loud  in  the  stillness  of  the 
night,  that  sleep  fled  from  my  eyelids. 
Never  did  I  enjoy  music  more :  it 
thrilled  through  my  heart,  and  sur- 
rounded me  with  an  atmosphere  of  bliss. 
One  might  easily  have  imagined  that 
even  the  Owl,  charmed  by  such  delight- 
ful music,  remained  reverently  silent. 
Long  after  the  sounds  ceased  did  I  enjoy 
them,  and  when  all  had  again  become 
still,  I  stretched  out  my  wearied  limbs, 
and  gave  myself  up  to  the  luxury  of  re- 
pose. " 

Probably  most  of  the  seventy-five  or 
eighty  copies  of  " Birds"  which  were 
taken  by  subscribers  in  this  country  are 
still  extant,  held  by  the  great  libraries, 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  123 
and  learned  institutions.  The  Lenox 
Library  in  New  York  owns  three  sets. 
The  Astor  Library  owns  one  set.  I 
have  examined  this  work  there ;  there 
are  four  volumes  in  a  set ;  they  are 
elephant  folio  size  —  more  than  three 
feet  long,  and  two  or  more  feet  wide. 
They  are  the  heaviest  books  I  ever 
handled.  It  takes  two  men  to  carry  one 
volume  to  the  large  racks  which  hold 
them  for  the  purpose  of  examination. 
The  birds,  of  which  there  are  a  thousand 
and  fifty-five  specimens  in  four  hundred 
and  thirty-five  plates,  are  all  life  size, 
even  the  great  eagles,  and  appear  to  be 
unfaded.  This  work,  which  cost  the 
original  subscribers  one  thousand  dol- 
lars, now  brings  four  thousand  dollars 
at  private  sale. 

Of  the  edition  with  reduced  figures 
and  with  the  bird  biographies,  many 
more  were  sold,  and  all  considerable 
public  libraries  in  this  country  possess 
the  work.  It  consists  of  seven  imperial 


124    JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBOX 

octavo  volumes.  Five  hundred  dollars  is 
the  average  price  which  this  work  brings. 
This  was  a  copy  of  the  original  English 
publication,  with  the  figures  reduced  and 
lithographed.  In  this  work,  his  sons, 
John  and  Victor,  greatly  assisted  him, 
the  former  doing  the  reducing  by  the 
aid  of  the  camera-lucida,  and  the  latter 
attending  to  the  printing  and  publishing. 
The  first  volume  of  this  work  appeared 
in  1840,  and  the  last  in  1844. 

Audubon  experimented  a  long  time 
before  he  hit  upon  a  satisfactory  method 
of  drawing  his  birds.  Early  in  his 
studies  he  merely  drew  them  in  out- 
line. Then  he  practised  using  threads 
to  raise  the  head,  wing  or  tail  of  his 
specimen.  Under  David  he  had  learned 
to  draw  the  human  figure  from  a  mani- 
kin. It  now  occurred  to  him  to  make 
a  manikin  of  a  bird,  using  cork  or  wood, 
or  wires  for  the  purpose.  But  his  bird 
manikin  only  excited  the  laughter  and 
ridicule  of  his  friends.  Then  he  con- 


JOHK  JAMES  AUDUBON  125 
ceived  the  happy  thought  of  setting  up 
the  body  of  the  dead  bird  by  the  aid 
of  wires,  very  much  as  a  taxidermist 
mounts  them.  This  plan  worked  well 
and  enabled  him  to  have  his  birds  per- 
manently before  him  in  a  characteristic 
attitude  :  "The  bird  fixed  with  wires  on 
squares  I  studied  as  a  lay  figure  before 
me,  its  nature  previously  known  to  me 
as  far  as  habits  went,  and  its  general 
form  having  been  perfectly  observed." 
His  bird  pictures  reflect  his  own 
temperament,  not  to  say  his  nation- 
ality 5  the  birds  are  very  demonstra- 
tive, even  theatrical  and  melodramatic 
at  times.  In  some  cases  this  is  all  right, 
in  others  it  is  all  wrong.  Birds  differ 
in  this  respect  as  much  as  people  do  — 
some  are  very  quiet  and  sedate,  others 
pose  and  gesticulate  like  a  Frenchman. 
It  would  not  be  easy  to  exaggerate,  for 
instance,  the  flashings  and  evolutions  of 
the  redstart  when  it  arrives  in  May, 
or  the  acting  and  posing  of  the  catbird, 


126    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBOST 

or  the  gesticulations  of  the  yellow 
breasted  chat,  or  the  nervous  and  em- 
phatic character  of  the  large-billed 
water  thrush,  or  the  many  pretty  atti- 
tudes of  the  great  Carolina  wren ;  but 
to  give  the  same  dramatic  character  to 
the  demure  little  song  sparrow,  or  to  the 
slow  moving  cuckoo,  or  to  the  pedestrian 
cowbird,  or  to  the  quiet  Kentucky 
warbler,  as  Audubon  has  done,  is  to 
convey  a  wrong  impression  of  these 
birds. 

"Wilson  errs,  if  at  all,  in  the  other 
direction.  His  birds,  on  the  other  hand, 
reflect  his  cautious,  undemonstrative 
Scotch  nature.  Few  of  them  are  shown 
in  violent  action  like  Audubon' s  cuckoo  ; 
their  poses  for  the  most  part  are  easy 
and  characteristic.  His  drawings  do 
not  show  the  mastery  of  the  subject 
and  the  versatility  that  Audubon' s  do  ; 
—  they  have  not  the  artistic  excellence, 
but  they  less  frequently  do  violence  to 
the  bird's  character  by  exaggerated 
activity. 


JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON    127 

The  colouring  in  Audubon's  birds  is 
also  often  exaggerated.  His  purple 
finch  is  as  brilliant  as  a  rose,  whereas 
at  its  best,  this  bird  is  a  dull  carmine. 

Either  the  Baltimore  oriole  has 
changed  its  habits  of  nest-building  since 
Audubon's  day,  or  else  he  was  wrong  in 
his  drawing  of  the  nest  of  that  bird,  in 
making  the  opening  on  the  side  near  the 
top.  I  have  never  seen  an  oriole7  s  nest 
that  was  not  open  at  the  top. 

In  his  drawings  of  a  group  of  robins, 
one  misses  some  of  the  most  characteristic 
poses  of  that  bird,  while  some  of  the  at- 
titudes that  are  portrayed  are  not 
common  and  familiar  ones. 

But  in  the  face  of  all  that  he  accom- 
plished, and  against  such  odds,  and  tak- 
ing into  consideration  also  the  changes 
that  may  have  crept  in  through  engraver 
and  colourists,  it  ill  becomes  us  to  indulge 
in  captious  criticisms.  Let  us  rather  re- 
peat Audubon's  own  remark  on  realising 
how  far  short  his  drawings  came  of  rep- 


128    JOHK  JAMES  AUDUBON 

resenting  the  birds  themselves:  " After 
all,  there7  s  nothing  perfect  but  primi- 
tiveness." 

Finding  that  he  could  not  live  in  the 
city,  in  1842  Audubon  removed  with  his 
family  to  ' i  Minnie' s  Land, ' '  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  now  known  as  Audubon 
Park,  and  included  in  the  city  limits ; 
this  became  his  final  home. 

In  the  spring  of  1843  he  started  on  his 
last  long  journey,  his  trip  to  the  Yellow- 
stone Eiver,  of  which  we  have  a  minute 
account  in  his  "  Missouri  Eiver  Jour- 
nals"—  documents  that  lay  hidden  in 
the  back  of  an  old  secretary  from  1843 
to  the  time  when  they  were  found  by 
his  grand- daughters  in  1896,  and  pub- 
lished by  them  in  1897. 

This  trip  was  undertaken  mainly  in 
the  interests  of  the  Quadrupeds  and 
Biography  of  American  Quadrupeds,  and 
much  of  what  he  saw  and  did  is  woven 
into  those  three  volumes.  The  trip 
lasted  eight  months,  and  the  hardships 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  129 
and  exposures  seriously  affected  Audu- 
bon's  health.  He  returned  home  in 
October,  1843. 

He  was  now  sixty-four  or  five  years 
of  age,  and  the  infirmities  of  his  years 
began  to  steal  upon  him. 

The  first  volume  of  his  ' l  Quadrupeds ' 7 
was  published  about  two  years  later,  and 
this  was  practically  his  last  work.  The 
second  and  third  volumes  were  mainly 
the  work  of  his  sons,  John  and  Victor. 

The  ' '  Quadrupeds J >  does  not  take  rank 
with  his  "  Birds."  It  was  not  his  first 
love.  It  was  more  an  after  thought  to 
fill  up  his  time.  Neither  the  drawing 
nor  the  colouring  of  the  animals,  largely 
the  work  of  his  son  John,  approaches 
those  of  the  birds. 

"Surely  no  man  ever  had  better 
helpers ' 7  says  his  grand-daughter,  and  a 
study  of  his  life  brings  us  to  the  same 
conclusion  —  his  devoted  wife,  his  able 
and  willing  sons,  were  his  closest  helpers, 
nor  do  we  lose  sight  of  the  assistance  of 


130    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
the  scientific  and  indefatigable  MacGilli- 
vray,    and   the  untiring  and   congenial 
co-worker,  Dr.  Bachman. 

Audubon's  last  years  were  peaceful 
and  happy,  and  were  passed  at  his 
home  on  the  Hudson,  amid  his  children 
and  grandchildren,  surrounded  by  the 
scenes  that  he  loved. 

After  his  eyesight  began  to  fail  him, 
his  devoted  wife  read  to  him,  she  walked 
with  him,  and  toward  the  last  she  fed 
him.  "  Bread  and  milk  were  his  break- 
fast and  supper,  and  at  noon  he  ate  a 
little  fish  or  game,  never  having  eaten 
animal  food  if  he  could  avoid  it." 

One  visiting  at  the  home  of  our  natu- 
ralist during  his  last  days  speaks  of  the 
tender  way  in  which  he  said  to  his  wife  : 
"Well,  sweetheart,  always  busy.  Come 
sit  thee  down  a  few  minutes  and  rest." 

Parke  Godwin  visited  Audubon    in  j 
1840,    and  gives    this    account    of  his 
visit : 

"The  house  was  simple  and  unpre- 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  131 
tentious  in  its  architecture,  and  beau- 
tifully embowered  amid  elms  and  oaks. 
Several  graceful  fawns,  and  a  noble 
elk,  were  stalking  in  the  shade  of  the 
trees,  apparently  unconscious  of  the 
presence  of  a  few  dogs,  and  not  caring 
for  the  numerous  turkeys,  geese,  and 
other  domestic  animals  that  gabbled 
and  screamed  around  them.  Nor  did 
my  own  approach  startle  the  wild, 
beautiful  creatures,  that  seemed  as 
docile  as  any  of  their  tame  compan- 
ions. 

"  'Is  the  master  at  home?'  I  asked 
of  a  pretty  maid  servant,  who  answered 
my  tap  at  the  door  ;  and  who,  after  in- 
forming me  that  he  was,  led  me  into  a 
room  on  the  left  side  of  the  broad  hall. 
It  was  not,  however,  a  parlour,  or  an  or- 
dinary reception  room  that  I  entered, 
but  evidently  a  room  for  work.  In  one 
corner  stood  a  painter's  easel,  with  the 
half-finished  sketch  of  a  beaver  on 
the  paper  ;  in  the  other  lay  the  skin 


132  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
of  an  American  panther.  The  antlers 
of  elks  hung  upon  the  waDs  ;  stuffed 
birds  of  every  description  of  gay  plu- 
mage ornamented  the  mantel-piece  ;  and 
exquisite  drawings  of  field  mice,  orioles, 
and  woodpeckers,  were  scattered  promis- 
cuously in  other  parts  of  the  room,  across 
one  end  of  which  a  long,  rude  table  was 
stretched  to  hold  artist  materials,  scraps 
of  drawing  paper,  and  immense  folio 
volumes,  filled  with  delicious  paintings 
of  birds  taken  in  their  native  haunts. 

"'This,'  said  I  to  myself,  'is  the 
studio  of  the  naturalist, '  but  hardly 
had  the  thought  escaped  me  when-  the 
master  himself  made  his  appearance. 
He  was  a  tall  thin  man,  with  a  high- 
arched  and  serene  forehead,  and  a 
bright  penetrating  grey  eye  ;  his  white 
locks  fell  in  clusters  upon  his  shoulders, 
but  were  the  only  signs  of  age,  for  his 
form  was  erect,  and  his  step  as  light  as 
that  of  a  deer.  The  expression  of  his 
face  was  sharp,  but  noble  and  com- 


JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON    133 

manding,  and  there  was  something  in 
it,  partly  derived  from  the  aquiline 
nose  and  partly  from  the  shutting  of 
the  mouth,  which  made  you  think  of  the 
imperial  eagle. 

"His  greeting  as  he  entered,  was  at 
once  frank  and  cordial,  and  showed  you 
the  sincere  true  man.  t  How  kind  it  is, J 
he  said,  with  a  slight  French  accent  and 
in  a  pensive  tone,  '  to  come  to  see  me ; 
and  how  wise,  too,  to  leave  that  crazy 
city.'  He  then  shook  me  warmly  by 
the  hand.  *  Do  you  know, '  he  contin- 
ued, l  how  I  wonder  that  men  can  con- 
sent to  swelter  and  fret  their  lives  away 
amid  those  hot  bricks  and  pestilent  va- 
pours, when  the  woods  and  fields  are  all 
so  near  I  It  would  kill  me  soon  to  be 
confined  in  such  a  prison  house  ;  and 
when  I  am  forced  to  make  an  occasional 
visit  there,  it  fills  me  with  loathing 
and  sadness.  Ah !  how  often,  when  I 
have  been  abroad  on  the  mountains, 
has  my  heart  risen  in  grateful  praise  to 


134    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

God  that  it  was  not  my  destiny  to  waste 
and  pine  among  those  noisome  congre- 
gations of  the  city.'  " 

Another  visitor  to  Audubon  during 
his  last  days  writes  :  "In  my  interview 
with  the  naturalist,  there  were  several 
things  that  stamped  themselves  indelibly 
on  my  mind.  The  wonderful  simplicity 
of  the  man  was  perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable. His  enthusiasm  for  facts 
made  him  unconscious  of  himself.  To 
make  him  happy  you  had  only  to  give 
him  a  new  fact  in  natural  history,  or 
introduce  him  to  a  rare  bird.  His  self- 
forgetfulness  was  very  impressive.  I 
felt  that  I  had  found  a  man  who  asked 
homage  for  God  .and  Nature,  and  not 
for  himself. 

"The  unconscious  greatness  of  the  man 
seemed  only  equalled  by  his  child-like 
tenderness.  The  sweet  unity  between  his 
wife  and  himself,  as  they  turned  over  the 
original  drawings  of  his  birds,  and  re- 
called the  circumstances  of  the  drawings, 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  135 
some  of  which  had  been  made  when  she 
was  with  him  ;  her  quickness  of  percep- 
tion, and  their  mutual  enthusiasm  re- 
garding these  works  of  his  heart  and 
hand,  and  the  tenderness  with  which 
they  unconsciously  treated  each  other, 
all  was  impressed  upon  my  memory. 
Ever  since,  I  have  been  convinced  that 
Audubon  owed  more  to  his  wife  than  the 
world  knew,  or  ever  would  know.  That 
she  was  always  a  reliance,  often  a  help, 
and  ever  a  sympathising  sister-soul  to 
her  noble  husband,  was  fully  apparent 
to  me." 

One  notes  much  of  the  same  fire  and 
vigour  in  the  later  portraits  of  Audubon, 
that  are  so  apparent  in  those  of  him  in 
his  youthful  days.  What  a  resolute 
closing  of  the  mouth  in  his  portrait  taken 
of  him  in  his  old  age  —  "  the  magnificent 
grey-haired  man  ! ? ' 

In  1847,  Audubon' s  mind  began  to 
fail  him ;  like  Emerson  in  his  old  age, 
he  had  difficulty  in  finding  the  right 
word. 


136    JOHK  JAMES  AUDUBON 

In  May,  1848,  Dr.  Bachman  wrote 
of  him:  "My  poor  friend  Audubon ! 
The  outlines  of  his  beautiful  face  and 
form  are  there,  but  his  noble  mind  is  all 
in  ruins.'7 

His  feebleness  increased  (there  was 
no  illness),  till  at  sunset,  January  27, 
1851,  in  his  seventy-sixth  year,  the 
"American  Woodsman,77  as  he  was 
wont  to  call  himself,  set  out  on  his  last 
long  journey  to  that  bourne  whence  no 
traveller  returns. 


Y. 

As  a  youth  Audubon  was  an  unwill- 
ing student  of  books  ;  as  a  merchant  and 
mill  owner  in  Kentucky  he  was  an  un- 
willing man  of  business,  but  during  his 
whole  career,  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  he  was  more  than  a  willing 
student  of  ornithology  —  he  was  an 
eager  and  enthusiastic  one.  He  brought 
to  the  pursuit  of  the  birds,  and  to  the 
study  of  open  air  life  generally,  the 
keen  delight  of  the  sportsman,  united 
to  the  ardour  of  the  artist  moved  by 
beautiful  forms. 

He  was  not  in  the  first  instance  a  man 
of  science,  like  Cuvier,  or  Agassiz,  or 
Darwin  —  a  man  seeking  exact  knowl- 
edge ;  but  he  was  an  artist  and  a  back- 
woodsman, seeking  adventure,  seeking 
the  gratification  of  his  tastes,  and  to  put 
on  record  his  love  of  the  birds.  He  was 
the  artist  of  the  birds  before  he  was  their 
historian ;  the  writing  of  their  biogra- 


138    JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

phies  seems  to  have  been  only  secondary 
with  him. 

He  had  the  lively  mercurial  tempera- 
ment of  the  Latin  races  from  which  he 
sprang.  He  speaks  of  himself  as  { i  warm, 
irascible,  and  at  times  violent.'7 

His  perceptive  powers,  of  course,  led 
his  reflective.  His  sharpness  and  quick- 
ness of  eye  surprised  even  the  Indians. 
He  says:  "My  observatory  nerves  never 
gave  way." 

His  similes  and  metaphors  were 
largely  drawn  from  the  animal  world. 
Thus  he  says,  " I  am  as  dull  as  a  beetle," 
during  his  enforced  stay  in  London. 
While  he  was  showing  his  drawings  to 
Mr.  Eathbone,  he  says  :  "I  was  panting 
like  the  winged  pheasant."  At  a  din- 
ner in  some  noble  house  in  England  he 
said  that  the  men  servants  "  moved  as 
quietly  as  killdeers."  On  another  oc- 
casion, when  the  hostess  failed  to  put 
him  at  his  ease:  " There  I  stood,  mo- 
tionless as  a  Heron." 


JOHN  JAMES  ATJDUBON    139 

With  all  his  courage  and  buoyancy, 
Audubon  was  subject  to  fits  of  depres- 
sion, probably  the  result  largely  of  his 
enforced  separation  from  his  family. 
On  one  occasion  in  Edinburgh  he  speaks 
of  these  attacks,  and  refers  pathetically 
to  others  he  had  had  :  < '  But  that  was  in 
beloved  America,  where  the  ocean  did 
not  roll  between  me  and  my  wife  and 
sons." 

Never  was  a  more  patriotic  American. 
He  loved  his  adopted  country  above  all 
other  lands  in  which  he  had  journeyed. 

Never  was  a  more  devoted  husband, 
and  never  did  wife  more  richly  deserve 
such  devotion  than  did  Mrs.  Audubon. 
He  says  of  her  :  "She  felt  the  pangs  of 
our  misfortune  perhaps  more  heavily 
than  I,  but  never  for  an  hour  lost  her 
courage ;  her  brave  and  cheerful  spirit 
accepted  all,  and  no  reproaches  from  her 
beloved  lips  ever  wounded  my  heart. 
With  her  was  I  not  always  rich  VJ 

"The  waiting  time,  my  brother,  is  the 
hardest  time  of  all." 


140  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
While  Audubon  was  waiting  for  better 
luck,  or  for  worse,  lie  was  always  listen- 
ing to  the  birds  and  studying  them  — 
storing  up  the  knowledge  that  he  turned 
to  such  good  account  later  :  but  we  can 
almost  hear  his  neighbours  and  ac- 
quaintances calling  him  an  "  idle,  worth- 
less fellow."  Not  so  his  wife  5  she  had 
even  more  faith  in  him  than  he  had  in 
himself. 

His  was  a  lovable  nature  —  he  won  af- 
fection and  devotion  easily,  and  he  loved 
to  be  loved ;  he  appreciated  the  least 
kindness  shown  him. 

He  was  always  at  ease  and  welcome 
in  the  squatter's  cabin  or  in  elegantly 
appointed  homes,  like  that  of  his  friends, 
the  Eathbones,  though  he  does  complain 
of  an  awkwardness  and  shyness  some- 
times when  in  high  places.  This,  how- 
ever, seemed  to  result  from  the  pomp 
and  ceremony  found  there,  and  not 
because  of  the  people  themselves. 

"  Chivalrous,  generous,  and  courteous 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  141 
to  his  heart's  core,"  says  his  grand- 
daughter, "he  could  not  believe  others 
less  so,  till  painful  experiences  taught 
him  j  then  he  was  grieved,  hurt,  but 
never  imbittered ;  and,  more  marvellous 
yet,  with  his  faith  in  his  fellows  as  strong 
as  ever,  again  and  again  he  subjected 
himself  to  the  same  treatment." 

On  one  occasion  when  his  pictures 
were  on  exhibition  in  England,  some  one 
stole  one  of  his  paintings,  and  a  warrant 
was  issued  against  a  deaf  mute.  ' l  Gladly 
would  I  have  painted  a  bird  for  the  poor 
fellow,"  saidAudubon,  u  and  I  certainly 
did  not  want  him  arrested." 

He  was  never,  even  in  his  most  des- 
perate financial  straits,  too  poor  to  help 
others  more  poor  than  himself. 

He  had  a  great  deal  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned piety  of  our  fathers,  which  crops 
out  abundantly  in  his  pages.  While  he 
was  visiting  a  Mr.  Bently  in  Manchester, 
and  after  retiring  to  his  room  for  the 
night,  he  was  surprised  by  a  knock  at  his 


142  JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 
door.  It  appeared  that  his  host  in  pass- 
ing thought  he  heard  Audubon  call  to 
him  to  ask  for  something  :  "  I  told  him 
I  prayed  aloud  every  night,  as  had  been 
my  habit  from  a  child  at  my  mother's 
knees  in  Nantes.  He  said  nothing  for 
a  moment,  then  again  wished  me  good 
night  and  was  gone." 

Audubon  belonged  to  the  early  history 
of  the  country,  to  the  pioneer  times,  to 
the  South  and  the  West,  and  was,  on  the 
whole,  one  of  the  most  winsome,  inter- 
esting, and  picturesque  characters  that 
have  ever  appeared  in  our  annals. 


BIBLIOGEAPHY. 

The  works  of  Audubon  are  mentioned 
in  the  chronology  at  the  beginning  of 
the  volume  and  in  the  text.  Of  the 
writings  about  him  the  following  —  apart 
from  the  obvious  books  of  reference  in 
American  biography  —  are  the  main 
sources  of  information  :  — 

I.  PROSE  WHITINGS  OF  AMERICA.     By 
Eufus  Wilmot  Griswold.    (Philadelphia, 
1847:  Carey  &  Hart.) 

II.  BRIEF  BIOGRAPHIES.     By  Samuel 
Smiles.       (Boston,     1861 :     Ticknor    & 
Fields.) 

III.  AUDUBON,   THE  NATURALIST  OF 
THE  NEW  WORLD  :  His  ADVENTURES 
AND  DISCOVERIES.      By    Mrs.    Horace 
Eoscoe  Stebbing  St.    John.     (Eevised, 
with  additions.     Boston,    1864  :  Crosby 
&    Nichols.      New    York,    1875:     The 
World  Publishing  House.) 


144  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

IV.  THE  LIFE  AND  ADVENTURES  OF 
JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON,  THE  NATURAL- 
IST. Edited,  from  materials  supplied 
by  his  widow,  by  Eobert  Buchanan. 
(London,  1868 :  S.  Low,  son  &  Mars- 
ton.) 

Y.  THE  LIFE  OF  JOHN  JAMES  Au- 
DUBON.  Edited  by  his  widow,  with 
an  Introduction  by  James  Grant  "Wilson. 
(New  York,  1869:  Putnams.) 

VI.  FAMOUS   MEN  OF  SCIENCE.     By 
Sarah  Knowles  Bolton.     (Boston,  1889  : 
T.  Y.  Crowell&Co.) 

VII.  AUDUBON     AND     HIS    JOURNALS. 

By  Maria  E.  Audubon.  With  Zoologi- 
cal and  Other  Notes  by  Elliott  Coues. 
(New  York,  1897 :  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.  Two  volumes.)  This  is  by  far 
the  most  interesting  and  authentic  of 
any  of  the  sources  of  information. 


THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES. 

M.  A.  DEWOLFE  HOWE,  Editor, 


The  aim  of  this  series  is  to  furnish  brief,  read- 
able, and  authentic  accounts  of  the  lives  of  those 
Americans  whose  personalities  have  impressed 
themselves  most  deeply  on  the  character  and 
history  of  their  country.  On  account  of  the 
length  of  the  more  formal  lives,  often  running 
into  large  volumes,  the  average  busy  man  and 
woman  have  not  the  time  or  hardly  the  inclina- 
tion to  acquaint  themselves  with  American  bi- 
ography. In  the  present  series  everything  that 
such  a  reader  would  ordinarily  care  to  know  is 
given  by  writers  of  special  competence,  who 
possess  in  full  measure  the  best  contemporary 
point  of  view.  Each  volume  is  equipped  with 
a  frontispiece  portrait,  a  calendar  of  important 
dates,  and  a  brief  bibliography  for  further  read- 
ing. Finally,  the  volumes  are  printed  in  a  form 
convenient  for  reading  and  for  carrying  handily 
in  the  pocket. 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY,  Publishers. 

[OVER] 


THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES. 


The  following  volumes  are  issued :  — 

Louis  Agassiz,  by  ALICE  BACHE  GOULD. 
John  James  Audubon,  by  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 
Edwin  Booth,  by  CHARLES  TOWNSEND  COPELAND. 
Phillips  Brooks,  by  M.  A.  DE WOLFE  HOWE. 
John  Brown,  by  JOSEPH  EDGAR  CHAMBERLIN. 
Aaron  Burr,  by  HENRY  CHILDS  MERWIN. 
James  Fenimore  Cooper,  by  W.  B.  SHUBRICJC  CLYMER. 
Stephen  Decatur,  by  CYRUS  TOWNSEND  BRADY. 
Frederick  Douglass,  by  CHARLES  W.  CHESNUTT. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  by  FRANK  B.  SANBORN 
David  G.  Farragut,  by  JAMES  BARNES. 
Ulysses  S.  Grant,  by  OWEN  WISTER. 
Alexander  Hamilton,  by  JAMES  SCHOULER. 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  by  Mrs.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 
Father  Hecker,  by  HENRY  D.  SEDGWICK,  Jr. 
Sam  Houston,  by  SARAH  BARNWELL  ELLIOTT. 
"Stonewall"  Jackson,  by  CARL  HOVEY. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  by  THOMAS  E.  WATSON. 
Robert  E.  Lee,  by  WILLIAM  P.  TRENT. 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  by  GEORGE  RICE  CARPENTER. 
James  Russell  Lowell,  by  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  Jr. 
Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  by  JOHN  TROWBRIDGE. 
Thomas  Paine,  by  ELLERY  SEDGWICK. 
Daniel  Webster,  by  NORMAN  HAPGOOD. 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  by  RICHARD  BURTON. 

The  following  are  among  those  in  preparation :  — 
John  Jacob  Astor,  by  ARTHUR  ASTOR  CAREY. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  by  LINDSAY  SWIFT. 


THE  WESTMINSTER  BIOG- 
RAPHIES. 


The  WESTMINSTER  BIOGRAPHIES  are  uniform  in  plan 
size,  and  general  make-up  with  the  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES, 
the  point  of  important  difference  lying  in  the  fact  that 
they  deal  with  the  lives  of  eminent  Englishmen  instead 
of  eminent  Americans.  They  are  bound  in  limp  red  cloth, 
are  gilt- topped,  and  have  a  cover  design  and  a  vignette  title- 
page  by  BERTRAM  GROSVENOR  GOODHUE.  Like  the  Beacon 
Biographies,  each  volume  has  a  frontispiece  portrait,  a 
photogravure,  a  calendar  of  dates,  and  a  bibliography  for 
further  reading. 

The  following  volumes  are  issued:  — 

Robert  Browning,  by  ARTHUR  WAUGH. 

Daniel  Defoe,  by  WILFRED  WRITTEN. 

Adam  Duncan  (Lord  Camperdown),  by  H.  W.  WILSON. 

George  Eliot,  by  CLARA  THOMSON. 

Cardinal  Newman,  by  A.  R.  WALLER. 
John  Wesley,  by  FRANK  BANKIELD. 

Many  others  are  in  preparation. 


SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY,  Publishers. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


3  1205  00947  7793 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA       001  326  462 


